Alumni AudioLab

Armenien hat einen langen Transformationsprozess vom Sowjetsystem zur Marktwirtschaft durchgemacht. Dennoch ist das Land und seine Menschen mit den vielfältigen sozialen, wirtschaftlichen, politischen und ökologischen Problemen konfrontiert. Die Folgen der Covid-19-Pandemie, aber auch das Wiederaufflammen des Krieges in Berg-Karabach haben Einfluss auf die Entwicklung des Landes und stellen die Menschen vor komplexe gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen. Um diese zu bewältigen, werden die unterschiedlichen Wissenszugänge der Universitäten rege genützt – sie führen akademisches, praktisches und lokales Know-How zusammen und zeigen Lösungswege auf. Diese Transdisziplinarität weist nicht nur die Einbindung der Universitäten in den Problemlösungsprozess deutlich hervor, sondern sie bietet auch die Möglichkeit zur Stärkung der Rolle der Universitäten in der Gesellschaft. Das war nicht immer selbstverständlich, denn das sowjetische Modell des Marxismus-Leninismus war in Europa einzigartig: An den Universitäten wurde getrennt gelehrt und geforscht. Freie Forschung war nicht an den Universitäten, sondern an der dafür gegründeten Akademie der Wissenschaften vorgesehen. Der gebürtige Armenier Tigran Keryan hat vor einigen Jahren mit einem Stipendium im Rahmen des APPEAR-Programms, das aus Mitteln der Österreichischen Entwicklungs- und Ostzusammenarbeit (OEZA) finanziert und im OeAD umgesetzt wird, sein Doktorat an der Universität für Bodenkultur abgeschlossen. Seine Expertise umfasst transdisziplinäres Forschen und Lernen, Citizen Science, Ökosystemleistungen, nachhaltige Regionalentwicklung und naturbasierte Lösungen. Derzeit lebt, arbeitet und lehrt Tigran Keryan in Wien. In dieser Sendung von „Welt im Ohr“ spricht er über seine Bemühungen, die gemeinsame Wissensproduktion zwischen Wissenschafter/innen, Praktikerinnen, Praktiktern und politischen Entscheidungsträgerinnen und Entscheidungsträgern zu fördern. Er schildert seinen Beitrag rund um Veränderungen im armenischen Hochschulsystem und berichtet über die Herausforderungen und Möglichkeiten der Integration transdisziplinärer Ansätze in post-sowjetische akademische Institutionen. Anhand des APPEAR-Projektes „Ecosystem Services Assessment through a Participatory Approach for Sustainable Water Resources Management in ArmeniaEcoServ, einer Kooperation zwischen der Yerevan State University (YSU), der Armenian Academy of Sciences und der BOKU, an der er aktiv beteiligt ist, spricht Tigran Keryan erstmals auf Deutsch und zeigt anhand von Beispielen, wie partizipative Methoden, basierend auf dem Citizen Science Ansatz, zu einem nachhaltigen Management von Wasserressourcen in Armenien beitragen. Gestaltung: Maiada Hadaia (Verantwortlich für den Sendungsinhalt) Im Interview: Dr. Tigran Keryan, Institut für Landschaftsentwicklung, Erholungs- und Naturschutzplanung, Universität für Bodenkultur (BOKU) WienMusik:

In 2012 the film days “Wissen.Schafft.Entwicklung” took place for the first time. Since then the team of APPEAR – the Austrian Development Cooperation's higher education cooperation programme at the OeAD, funded by the Austrian Development Cooperation – has invited people to annual film screenings on all sorts of topics and scientific orientations. Since 2016 the Film Days have no longer taken place as a stand-alone event but as part of other established festivals, such as the This Human World - International Human Rights Film Festival. On 10 December 2022 at 1 p.m. we will show the film Among Us Women as part of the cooperation and then discuss with the film producer Sonja Kilbertus and the APPEAR scholarship holder Simegn Kassa Alamirew from the Department of Development Research of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. Cinema as a place of encounter and film as a form of resistance with an always critical view of global inequalities will be discussed and examined on different levels. With the film and discussion format the APPEAR team at the OeAD wants to make development policy and development research accessible to a broad public. Creation and presentation: Maiada Hadaia (responsible for the programme content) Guest: Carla Lehner, artistic direction of This Human World

Der russische Angriffskrieg auf die Ukraine, der mit unglaublicher Brutalität geführt wird, hat bislang nicht nur zehntausenden Menschen das Leben gekostet, sondern auch die vernetzten Strukturen der Weltwirtschaft ins Wanken gebracht. Die auf extremer Ungleichheit zwischen den geopolitischen Sphären basierenden Ökonomien erodieren derzeit in atemberaubendem Tempo, nicht nur aufgrund der Sanktionen gegen Russland, sondern vor allem auch wegen der künstlich erzeugten Energieverknappung, der Lieferkettenengpässe und der daraus resultierenden Teuerungen, insbesondere die Güter des täglichen Bedarfs betreffend. Neben Inflationsraten wie seit Jahrzehnten nicht mehr, führen die multiplen Krisen derzeit zu exzessiver Nahrungsmittelverteuerung bzw. -verknappung, die die Kluft zwischen armen und reichen Ländern, aber auch zwischen den Vermögenden und Mittellosen in den einzelnen Ländern extrem verschärft. Erschweren die multiplen Krisen den Ausstieg aus fossilen Energieträgern oder befördern Energieverknappung und -teuerung die Energiewende? Susanne Geissler arbeitet im Bereich nachhaltige Gebäude, Energieeffizienz und erneuerbare Energie und entwickelt nationale und internationale Forschungsprojekte – insbesondere auch in Ländern des subsaharischen Afrika. Johannes Schmidl ist Physiker mit jahrzehntelanger Expertise in erneuerbarer Energie, der ein faszinierendes Buch mit dem Titel „Energie und Utopie“ geschrieben hat. In dieser Ausgabe von „Welt im Ohr“ analysieren Susanne Geissler und Johannes Schmidl die aktuelle Situation und diskutieren Wege in eine nachhaltigere Energie-Zukunft. Gäste: Dr. Susanne Geissler: Biologin, Umwelttechnikerin, PV-Planerin, CEO von SERA – Institute for Sustainable Energy and Resources Availability DI Johannes Schmidl: Physiker, Energieexperte bei Save Energy Austria, Buchautor, zuletzt: (2021) Energie und Utopie, Sonderzahl Verlag Wien Moderation: Elisabeth-Christine Kirsch (OeAD) Andreas Obrecht (OeAD)

Mehr als 70.000 Ukrainer/innen sind laut Österreichischem Integrationsfond seit Ende Februar in Österreich angekommen. In ihrem Heimatland herrscht Krieg. Es sind vor allem Frauen und Kinder, die seither Schutz suchen. Knapp fünf Monate nach Kriegsausbruch hat sich die Situation in der Ukraine vor allem im Osten des Landes verschärft. Wie es weitergeht, ist weiterhin unklar. Unter den Vertriebenen sind Studierende, Wissenschaftler/innen und Forschende. Sie versuchen ihre wissenschaftliche Arbeit in Österreich fortzusetzen. Eine von ihnen ist Albina. Die 24-Jährige Medizinstudentin plante schon lange, ihr Studium in Wien fortzusetzen. Sie erzählt von der überwältigenden Solidarität, die sie erlebt. Und wie ihr das hilft, trotz der Umstände in ihrem Zuhause ein neues Leben aufzubauen. Doch was ist mit jenen Studierenden, die ganz plötzlich das Studium, das Zuhause, die Freunde und Familie zurücklassen mussten? Olesia Husak, Programme Officer der Abteilung für Internationale Hochschulkooperation des OeAD, berät sie über ihre Möglichkeiten. In einem Gespräch gibt Husak Einblicke in die Lebensrealitäten ukrainischer Studierender. Gestaltung und Moderation: Sandra Schmidhofer (für den Sendungsinhalt verantwortlich) Im Interview: Albina Budko, Medizinstudentin Mag. Olesia Husak, Programme Officer der Abteilung für Internationale Hochschulkooperation des OeAD

Apinun Limmongkon has been conducting research on antioxidants and secondary metabolite production since her bachelor's degree. These substances are not only a much researched but still little explored area in the food and cosmetics industry. Above all they are very important in medical research that expects a lot from them, for example in the fight against dementia. Under stress or adverse conditions, plants produce active ingredients that allow them to defend themselves. These are not important for the primary life of the plant but are very effective when it comes to defeat dangers from ozone or parasites. Apinun Limmongkon came from Thailand to Austria in the early 2000s to graduate her PhD at the University of Vienna. In 2008 and 2021, she returned for further research. In her home country Thailand, Apinun Limmongkon not only conducts research, but also inspires her students – distinguishingly female – for biochemistry. In this podcast, she talks about her stays in Austria, the role of peanut hairy roots in her research and why the question of whether women have a harder time in science is no issue for her.

Crista Stubbs recognized the fragility and vulnerability of ecosystems on the Caribbean side of Nicaragua early on. This vulnerability is directly linked to climate change. She already dedicated herself to this topic in her bachelor thesis. In her master's thesis at the University of Vienna she deepened the subject and examined the role of the mangrove ecosystems on the east coast of Nicaragua in relation to their ability to store CO2. She was a scholarship holder of APPEAR - Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education and Research for Development. One of her most recent research projects examines the vulnerability of local producers after Hurricane Iota devastated the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua in November 2020. Iota hit the coast shortly after Hurricane Eta. These rapid on-going natural disasters made it difficult for local people to deal with the consequences. Hurricanes are not uncommon in this region, but climate change makes them more likely to happen now and in the future. So it is the adaptation to the consequences of climate change that plays an important role in this region. In this podcast, Crista Stubbs tells about her experiences in Austria, about climate protection and climate change adaptation in Nicaragua and about how the population is affected by natural disasters.

If one tries to describe Oliver Hauser's research area in two words, it would probably be inequality and cooperation. But it's not that easy. Oliver Hauser is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Exeter Business School, has a Bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Innsbruck and a PhD in Biology from Harvard University, where he taught and conducted research. Today he also heads the initiative with the great acronym “BIG Ideas - Behavioral Insights: Gender, Inlusivity, Diversity, Equality and Access” initiative, which is funded through a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship. Oliver Hauser conducts research, teaches and publishes beyond the boundaries of his discipline(s). From the point of view of economics, psychology and management, evolutionary biology or environmental sciences, he describes the large and small structures in society and in companies. Game theory is one of his favourite tools. Since the corona pandemic hit the world, he has also dealt with the intensification of inequalities and the possibilities of restructuring society. In 2009 he received an Erasmus scholarship and studied in Romania and from 2007 to 2010 he was scholarship holder of the Mondi Austria Foundation, which was managed by the OeAD.

Tigran Keryan grew up in the nearly untouched nature of Armenia. He grew into a life in harmony with nature at an early age, which went hand in hand with his studies of geography and his interest in sustainability issues.After graduating, he worked for several years as a geography teacher and assistant to the principal. During this time he enrolled in his doctoral studies at the Armenian State Pedagogical University. He focuses on sustainable mountain development in Armenia and sustainability since then. In 2017 he came to Vienna and continued his studies at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Boku). As part of the CaucaSusT project, which was funded by the APPEAR programme, he conducts transdisciplinary research in the context of sustainable tourism development in Georgia and Armenia. Tigran is convinced, that transdisciplinarity in science is the right way to address local challenges.Transdisciplinarity means the cooperation not only between scientists from different disciplines, but also between science, students and the local population. Nevertheless, this approach is still neglected in today's science and funding landscape. This complex, albeit holistic, approach is often in contradiction to long-established frontal teaching and professors who stick to a teacher-student or researcher-researched subject dichotomy.In this podcast he talks about his experience in transdisciplinary research, his career and his doctoral studies, which he successfully graduated from in spring 2021. But he also addresses the ongoing conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh in the Caucasus.

Das letzte Jahr und der Lockdown haben deutlich gezeigt, wie wichtig digitale Kompetenzen und ein verantwortungsvoller und bewusster Umgang mit digitalen Medien heutzutage sind. Insbesondere für junge Menschen ist die Digitalisierung im Klassenzimmer längst angekommen.Im Schuljahr 2020/21 hat der OeAD mit dem Themenschwerpunkt „More than bytes – Kulturelle Bildung und digitale Medien“ im Bereich Kulturvermittlung mit Schulen, bewusst seine Förderaktivitäten auch in diese Richtung gelenkt. In Workshops und Vorträgen werden Schülerinnen und Schüler aktiv und partizipativ an Kunst und digitale Medien herangeführt und auch Lehrende, Kunstschaffende und -vermittelnde sind eingeladen, sich in kulturellen Projekten mit digitalen Medien und Digitalisierung auseinanderzusetzen.Der Bereich Kulturvermittlung mit Schulen, seit 2020 im OeAD ansässig, steht dabei als Schnittstelle zwischen Schule, Kunst und Kultur.In dieser Sendung berichten eine Musikpädagogin, ein Filmemacher und eine Vertreterin des Programms von ihrem Zugang zum Thema Digitalisierung. Sie diskutieren über digitale Medien im Unterricht, wie sich die Lebensrealität der Jugendlichen im künstlerischen Schaffen manifestiert und inwieweit der Lockdown das Thema positiv oder negativ beeinflusst hat.Gestaltung und Moderation: Doris Obrecht (Verantwortlich für den Sendungsinhalt)Gäste:Stefan Bohun, BA, Regisseur und Filmemacher, Leiter des Vereins „Shoot your short“ (gemeinsam mit Mag. Gregor Centner)Mag. Ulrike Gießner-Bogner, Leiterin des Bereichs Kulturvermittlung mit Schulen im OeADMag. Elisabeth Wieland, Musikpädagogin am Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium Gastein, Chorleiterin, Universitätsassistentin für Musikpädagogik an der Universität Mozarteum in SalzburgMusik: Heifervescent-Destination Altair; Modern Pitch-Where The Wind Blows; The Morning Light-Scars. Nachzuhören auf Jamendo eine Community für freie, legale und unlimitierte Musik, die unter Creative Commons Lizenzen veröffentlicht wurde.

Vahidin Preljevic focuses in his research on the literature of Viennese modernism and on the role of literature and documents related to the assassination attempt in Sarajevo. This attack led to the First World War. He himself fled the war in Bosnia to Germany in the 1990s. He finished school here and started his German studies at the University of Halle/Saale. But he never intended to stay in Germany, so he quickly returned after the war. Vahidin Preljevic is Germanist, cultural theorist, essayist, literary translator and holder of the chair for German-language literature and cultural studies at the University of Sarajevo.He was also a scholarship holder in the Franz Werfel scholarship program, which enables researchers from abroad to conduct research on topics of Austrian literature in Austria. Once someone has been a “Werfelianer”, he or she will remain in a follow-up programme for many years. From this a network of former Werfel scholarship holders has developed over the years. Even decades later, they meet regularly, organize conferences and exchange their experience.In this podcast, Vahidin Preljevic talks about his experiences in Germany and the role of literature and culture in the eventful history of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He also talks about his forthcoming anthology about Peter Handke's Yugoslavian texts, which are received very critically in several countries, including several former Yugoslav states

Jessica Virginia is conducting research on the degradability of lignin with the help of bacteria and enzymes. Lignin is the substance that is responsible for the strength and fiber structure, especially in wood. It is known that fungi can decompose this substance, but little research has been carried out on bacteria in this framework.Jessica Virginia is working on her doctoral thesis with an Ernst Mach Asea Uninet scholarship at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna. She did her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in biotechnology in her home country Indonesia. She then took part in a research project that dealt with the recycling of residues from palm oil production for several years. After pressing the oil-containing kernels, a substance is left that is called palm kernel meal. By degrading it, it can be used as an animal feed additive.In this episode Jessica talks about her first and current experiences as a young researcher in Austria, about the criticism of palm oil in Europe, about research in times of Covid-19 and national identity in Indonesia.

If it had been up to his father, Ismail Gbadamosi would have become a doctor. That was the real plan. Ismail chose another way, but the human body became his field of work and research - more precisely the human brain. He is a neuroscientist and currently conducting research for his PhD at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology which is part of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He specializes in neurodegenerational diseases.His academic path began at the University of Ilorin in Nigeria, where he completed his Masters in Human Anatomy. During his student days he already worked as a research assistant. One of his major areas of research was (and still is) the effects of different substances on the brain in Alzheimer’s disease research, including nicotine. His interest is shaped by his grandmother's Alzheimer's disease. It was the whole family's job to take care for her at home.In 2020 he came from Nigeria to Vienna as an OeAD scholarship holder. This was shortly before Austria shutdown public life and travel due to the first lockdown. He stayed for 9 months.In this podcast, Ismail talks about his career, his past and current research and also about his personal passions such as cooking and fitness.

Gerd Micheluzzi - art historian and PhD student at the University of Vienna - visited the art history institute in Florence for two semesters in 2020. His stay – funded by a Marietta Blau scholarship - was interrupted by the pandemic. This started an odyssey that brought him to the University of Hamburg as a research assistant at the end.Micheluzzi did not choose Florence randomly as his research destination. As a PhD candidate he conducts research on the cast shadow in Italian painting of the 14th-15th centuries. The shadow was already an important motive in ancient times, but then it disappeared for centuries – at least in paintings – almost without a trace. In written sources, however, it has been clearly preserved. The natural philosophers of this time also devoted their attention to him.This brings the former Marietta Blau scholarship holder to the edge of his discipline and beyond. Transdisciplinary research is important and necessary in his field. In this podcast he talks about his fascination for shadows, his love for Florence and the challenges of research stays in pandemic times.

Right during this podcast recording, Dr Sony Baral received the acceptation to be the first woman to take up a position as an associate professor at the Institute for Forestry at Thribhuvan University/Nepal. The OeAD warmly congratulates her!Sony Baral grew up in rural Nepal, an area where forests play a major role for the population. They are the basis of life, living space, provide fuelwood for cooking and heating, and products to sell. On the other hand, especially cooking and heating with fuelwood is responsible for a large part of CO2 emissions in the rural areas of Nepal. Sony Baral has devoted her academic career to these CO2 emissions and the forests in Nepal in general.In 2019 she completed her PhD at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, as a scholarship holder of the APPEAR program. In addition, she has been working repeatedly at the interface between science and policy making for many years. A work that encouraged her to study additionally law since 2018.In this podcast she talks about forest management in Nepal, about the special features of so-called community forests and about the discrepancy between firewood as a necessity on the one hand and as a cause of CO2 emissions on the other hand.

The Eurovision Song Contest was established in 1956 to test whether it is possible to broadcast a TV program live across Europe. It succeeded and since then, 2020 is the first year in which no Eurovision Song Contest took place due to the prevailing circumstances.Dean Vuletic, historian at the University of Vienna, has chosen Eurovision as his main field of research. He conducts research on this big event in particular with regard to its development in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, as well as the role of the Cold War and communism for popular culture.He holds a PhD and a Master’s degree from Columbia University / New York as well as a Master’s degree from Yale University. In 2013 he came to Vienna with an OeAD scholarship. In 2014 Conchita Wurst won the song contest for Austria, which gave Dean Vuletic the opportunity to advance his career in this field. He is currently based at the Research Center for the History of Transformations at the University of ViennaWebsite of Dean Vuletic

On March 17, 2015, solar cycle 24 - which had been going on since 2008 - peaked. On that day, satellite data in Bosnia-Herzegovina showed large deviations due to strong solar storms and thus an unusually high proportion of electrons in the ionosphere. Such strong solar storms cause GPS signals and other satellite data to vary massively. This can even cause power outages of several hours, such as a few years ago in Canada.Randa Natras, born in Bosnia-Herzegovina, is currently working on her PhD in the field of satellite geodesy. She is researching these deviations above the western Balkans. She already dedicated her master thesis to the topic. In 2017/18, as an OeAD scholarship holder at the Vienna University of Technology, she developed a model for measuring the electron density in the ionosphere above Bosnia-Herzegovina. Subsequently, she expanded this to the entire Western Balkans. Even if it is difficult to infer future events from past events, Randa Natras is working to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to gain insights for predictions. She is currently completing her PhD at the Technical University of Munich.Randa Natras finds compensation for her research through voluntary work in the field of environmental protection, rights for women in Bosnia-Herzegovina and also in the field of education. She is a member of the Bosnia-Herzegovina delegation for the European Forum Alpbach and works to encourage Bosnian students to go abroad. A few years ago, she met the supervisor of her dissertation at a conference in Japan.Alumni Portrait of Randa Natras

As a teenager, Alys George wanted to get away from the little American town where she grew up. It took her to Germany for an exchange year. This shaped her love for the German language and literature and brought her to study German studies. In the course of her dissertation research, she gave attention to Austria and especially Vienna for the first time. She has remained loyal to this city and its arts since then.Her current work “The naked truth. Viennese Modernism and the body “ addresses the body at the turn of the century and beyond. Well-known authors such as Hermann Bahr called for a focus on mind, soul and body in arts. But Sigmund Freud with his research on mind and soul left little room for the body in cultural history. Alys George, who has already written her dissertation on Viennese Modernism, wants to fill this gap.In addition to her research, she has been teaching for decades - currently at New York University. With a Franz Werfel scholarship from the OeAD, she is now in Vienna for her current research. In this work she deals with fictions about Austria-Hungary in the post-monarchist literature. She is studying literature by authors from the former Habsburg countries, who were located on the periphery of the former Empire. Alys George was also scholarship holder of the Richard Plaschka programme.

The dream of becoming a chemical engineer was actually that of her father, who due to his color blindness cannot live it himself. Anies Mutiari from Indonesia lives it for him. She started her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering when she was just 18 years old. Right after finishing it she was recruited by the Ministry of Industry, Center of Material and Technical Product - like many young researcher in Indonesia. Due to the limited number of places, she waited 4 years before starting her master’s degree - with a focus on biogas purification. Renewable energies have been with her from the beginning of her studies until today, up to her PhD studies about photovoltaic, which she is currently completing at the Vienna University of Technology and the Austrian Institute of Technology.There she conducts research on carrier inks and mineral compositions for second-generation photovoltaic systems. Namely those whose solar cells no longer consist of centimeter-thick mineral layers, but move in the microscopic range - liquid enriched with the mineral kesterite is applied to a carrier medium such as glass. Kesterite consists of non-toxic minerals such as Copper and zinc.Renewable energies have arrived in Indonesia but on a very small scale - only a few percent of the total power supply comes from renewable energy sources, with hydropower and geothermal energy still being pioneers. The extent to which photovoltaics can play a greater role here is not yet predictable, not even for Anies Mutiari as she states in this podcast.

Sara Kaweesa grew up on a farm in Southern Uganda. Her parents were smallholder-farmers as many people in rural regions in Uganda. The yield was small but steady. Today Uganda’s population is growing fast. About 70% of the people are younger than 14. This brings a lot of new challenges for food security and agriculture.Sara Kaweesas life is a mix of theoretical research and bringing all these findings and new knowledge in practice. She was a North-South scholarship holder in the mid-2000s and earned her Masters degree from the University of Natural Resources (Boku) in Vienna. More than 10 years later she came back for her PhD at the Centre for Development Research/CDR also at Boku. Sara conducted research on how to apply conservation agriculture in the Lango region in Mid-Northern Uganda, which is recognized for its potential to become Uganda´s grain basket.It was not always easy as she didn´t speak the language of the region and because it is not easy to get in touch with the farmers as an academic in general. But Sara is not known for giving up so she is just about finishing her PhD in autumn 2019.In this podcast she unveils the secrets of conservation agriculture – sometimes also known as farming god’s way – and talks about her community projects, for example bringing fireless cookers to Ugandan families to save energy and time. The idea to these fireless cookers came from an old woman in Austria who she met a while ago.

As a child, Tanushree Gupta from India found paintings by her mother that were in poor condition. She was enthusiastic about restoring them. Today she is an art conservator. She has maintained her enthusiasm and joy in dealing with paintings and other art objects and has now proven her skills as a conservator and researcher with a doctoral degree.Her most recent project was a new storage concept for the Napier Museum in Kerala, southern India. High humidity and temperatures make it difficult for the art objects to be stored there. She redesigned the storage with an international team of researchers and restored existing damage to artworks such as mold."Every object is a new project," she says in this podcast episode, because you cannot close from one object to another one. You always start at zero with a comprehensive analysis before any restoration can be done. That can take up to a month.One particularly important project to her was the recent re-restoration of her mother's paintings. Because asked about any mistakes, Tanushree explains with a laugh that those were the one objects where she did pretty much everything wrong. Today she knows better.Tanushree Gupta has been a recurring OeAD scholarship holder since 2011 in the funding programs Ernst Mach worldwide and technology grants East / Central and South Asia (today Ernst Mach Eurasia-Pacific Uninet).

Today her students meet in intercultural dialogue with students from Serbia and Montenegro – for example in theater workshops. Blerte Ismajli herself studied at the time of the Kosovo war. She achieved her high level of German language through German-language radio, television and excessive practice - in wartimes, this intensive examination of a previously unknown language was also a refuge and a protective mechanism against the political unrest in the country.In 2010 she came to Austria for her doctoral studies with a scholarship from the OeAD. The sheer endless pool of knowledge in Vienna's libraries opened up possibilities for her that she did not have at a young university like that in Pristina and a still younger institute of German studies. To this day the local conditions are limited, although the resources are constantly being expanded - also with Austrian help.Currently she is conducting research on grammatical structures such as evidentiality. This means where does a speaker get his information from? Although German and Albanian have their roots in the same language family - the Indo-European - there are very different ways of expressing this. Especially for her work as an interpreter and translator, such language comparisons are important – and also exciting.

Kesang Wangchuk comes from a country where the first university was founded in 2003 - the Royal University of Bhutan. Nevertheless, Kesang went to India in 1993 to do his bachelor's degree there. In the late 1990s, he began his career as a Research Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Thimphu, Bhutan. He completed his master's degree in Australia and finally came to Vienna in 2010 to work at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences for his PhD, graduating in 2013.He left Bhutan for education and training only, returning home with new insights and results in and for his research. On this basis, he is currently working on improving the living conditions of highway workers in Bhutan at the interface between research and policy making. These workers - mostly Hindu from neighboring India - live on the streets, earn little enough to live on, and in recent years have begun to keep livestock in addition to their work to make a living.In addition to this research project, in this podcast Kesang Wangchuk recalls his time in Austria, talks about the so-called Gross National happiness, which is unique in Bhutan, and gives tips for new scholarship holders.This podcast is a record of the Alumni Talk "Finding Happiness in Science and Research" of March 21, 2019.

82 percent of people identify with their cities about architecture. Identity and architecture is also the field of research chosen by Bohdan Cherkes of Ukraine for his career and his life.He grew up near Lviv and it was the wooden village church that aroused his interest in architecture early on. The German language was still present in his family, as well as in Lviv, the former capital of the region of Galicia, which in the past was an important part of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy. As late as 1900, the inhabitants of Lviv were a multicultural mix of Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, Armenians and Germans. After the two world wars it changed rapidly. The question of "identity" became crucial and it turned to be research area for Bohdan Cherkes.He teaches at the Polytechnic University of Lviv, founded in the 19th century under Austrian rule. There has been a relationship with the Technical University of Vienna for around 150 years, which was consolidated in a university partnership in the mid-1990s. In workshops, seminars, exhibitions, through student exchanges and other activities, the two universities work closely together, especially in the field of architecture.In this episode of Alumni AudioLab Bohdan Cherkes tells about his personal history and the history of Lviv and Ukraine, about identity and growing up in the Soviet Union, the relationship with Moscow today and about a fruitful university partnership.

In his current research, Miguel Vazquez Pufleau investigates the processes around the growth of aerosol particles - or condensation nuclei - on which liquids condense in the course of certain processes. For this he builds reactors himself, bombards the particles with the laser, measures, calculates and observes - mostly on the computer, because this nucleation is lightning fast. Once you can describe these processes accurately, you can also use them, e.g. for the treatment or coating of surfaces in different contexts or in meteorology.In his career, which led him to Austria for the first time in 2008 as Ernst Mach scholarship holder, he deals with aerosols and their use for processes for quite a long time. These are equally relevant to both industry and research, and Miguel Pufleau likes to face complex challenges that require creative approaches.Originally from Mexico, he completed most of his education in the USA. Since 2017 he is now at the University of Vienna at the Institute of Aerosol Physics.

After completing her teaching studies for English and Spanish, Michaela Höller moved abroad. As a foreign language assistant and for her teaching internship she spent a total of 3 years in England. During this time she became aware of the OeAD lectureship programme and applied for a position in Mexico - her absolute favorite destination. After one year of waiting, her application was successful and in the autumn of 2013 she joined the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) as a lecturer for German language and Austrian culture. Her original plan to stay a maximum of 3 years changed and Michaela Höller stayed the entire period of 5 years – not least because of the motivated students and her very dedicated boss. In addition to teaching, she organized film evenings, invited movie producers, started a pilot project with an app that subtitles Austrian television for the deaf and language learners and dealt a lot with cultural learning.Since the summer of 2018 she is back in Austria and teaches English and Spanish at the Sacre Coeur in Vienna.

Already as a child, Adrián Prieto from Spain was passionate about leafing through his parents' architectural books. He was fascinated by different architectural styles and works. For his studies, however, he initially opted for law, which soon became too theoretical for him. A counterbalance with more practical relevance, he hoped from a bachelor's degree in interior design, but that was not exactly the right thing also. With his Master studies Adrián finally found his way. Already for his Master thesis he conducted research on Robert Mallet-Stevens, an architect of the French avant-garde of the 1920s. The more he learned about him, the more gaps he discovered in previous research, and so Adrián Prieto decided to fill these gaps within his doctorate studies. In particular, he conducts research on the connections of Mallet-Stevens and Josef Hoffmann, co-founder of the Vienna Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte.As Ernst-Mach scholarship holder he is currently researching in the Vienna archives. In this podcast Adrián Prieto talks about the connections between Vienna and Paris in the 1920s, the art and architecture scene and the question of who decides what constitutes art in architecture and what should be preserved for the future.

Burkina Faso, a rather arid country in western Africa, began to build water reservoirs 150 years ago. Today there are about 1500 of these reservoirs ranging in size from small to very large ponds. Dr. Raymond Ouedraogo knows a lot of them. Since the 1980s he has been a multi-faceted expert in fisheries, aquaculture and water management. After graduating from the Higher Institute for Fisheries Sciences and Techniques, he began his career in the Ministry of Environment and Fish Resources in Burkina Faso. He remained there until 2013, but during this time he also acquired 2 Masters Degrees in the UK and Belgium and subsequently a doctoral degree at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna. He has remained in touch with BOKU beyond his doctorate, and today he is the regional coordinator of the SUSFISH-plus project. This project is a collaboration between BOKU and, among others, the National Center for Scientific and Technological Research in Burkina Faso, where Raymond currently pursues his research. Already in the project preceding this one – SUSFISH – he was an important member of the team.In this podcast, Raymond Ouedraogo talks about land and water in Burkina Faso, the different uses of water reservoirs, and how he works in the middle of politics and science to develop the maximum benefits of research for the people and the land.

In 1992, Dr Rahel Bekele became the first woman in Ethiopia to graduate from the new Information Science Master’s degree program, at a time when the distribution and use of computers or the Internet was still in its infancy, not just in Ethiopia. Since then Rahel Bekele has addressed the issue of how to use the opportunities of information and communication technologies, especially in the health sector. She obtained her doctoral degree in Hamburg in 2005 and during her stay there she also got in touch with Austria and the OeAD. For many years she has been particularly concerned with health education for pregnant women and young mothers in rural Ethiopia, as the mortality rates of women and children around the time of giving birth are still very high. With an information app on pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood, she and her team are currently working on the APPEAR project TEMACC. The project also tries to involve the husbands/men, since in these mostly Muslim societies there is also a big need for educating men – although it is not always welcomed.In addition to many other activities, Rahel Bekele, who is also the mother of four children, has been involved in Addis Ababa Prison for many years. Among other engagement she teaches prisoners how to use computers. It should facilitate an easier re-entry into the society.

The curiosity about the universe, about physical processes and about what is going on “out there”, has accompanied Vardan Elbakyan from Armenia since his childhood. Although early physical experiments with electricity went almost wrong, he decided to turn his passion into a profession. After completing his bachelor's degree in Yerevan / Armenia, Vardan Elbakyan went to Russia to do a master's degree and a doctorate in astrophysics. From solar winds over galactic winds, he finally came to the research of the formation of stars, which he conducted research on for 6 months in 2018 with an Ernst Mach scholarship at the University of Vienna.In this episode Vardan Elbakyan explains this star formations but he also talks about working with astronomers, about astronautics and exoplanets, the end of the universe, and what science fiction literature and movies can mean for an astrophysicist.

With Italy's entry into the war in 1915, the front moved to Slovenia, forcing a section of the Slovenian civilian population to flee. The evacuations were almost spontaneously carried out, he population was badly informed, although at least official sites knew about the danger. The conditions in the refugee camps in the Austrian hinterland were catastrophic.Dr Jernej Kosi is historian at the University of Ljubljana. Currently he is conducting research at the University of Vienna on the fate of these refugees. Sources can be found in the Austrian war archive, but many more also in district and city archives, since Jernej Kosi is focusing in his research not only on official documents, but also on letters or diary entries. This is the only way to view this escape situation from different perspectives in order to present the most accurate picture possible of that time.In this podcast, he not only talks about this research, which shows surprisingly similar parallels to today's time, but also about the science of history as an academic field and about what role a historian can and should fulfill today.

German scholar Vjosa Hamiti grew up in Germany and Switzerland. In 1990, she returned to Kosovo, at a time when political sentiment was heating up and the situation for Albanians worsening. Th ey were excluded from public buildings as well as the university, which led to the formation of underground universities where Vjosa Hamiti was also active.She interpreted in the 1990s for the President of the unrecognized "Republic of Kosova" and worked as a journalist to give the German-speaking countries insight into the events in Kosovo.In 2018 she was conducting research in the field of political communication at the University of Vienna as a HERAS scholarship holder. Vjosa Hamiti examines election campaign speeches of German, Kosovar and Austrian politicians.

Born in a rural area of Pakistan under the name of Rovidad, he was also given the name Muhammad during the school enrollment, because a first and last name was needed there. But actually Rovidad stands for itself. The career choice to engineer or medical doctor, which would be common in this area, he has decided differently for himself. Rovidad earned his bachelor's degree in Agricultural Economics and focused on the economic part in his further academic career.Today, as part of his doctoral thesis at the University of Vienna, he is researching microcredit and microfinance in Pakistan. This fellowship for Pakistani doctoral students is funded by the Higher Education Commission Pakistan.

Sarah Babinger was interested in environmental issues early on. She began studying Energy, Transport and Environmental management at the FH Joanneum in Graz. In the autumn of 2016, she came to the small town of Gabrovo, in the heart of Bulgaria, as an Erasmus student. Soon it should turn out as a happy coincidence, although it did not remain without challenges. It is not an easy task to conquer Eastern Europe without knowledge of the national language or at least Russian, but Sarah Babinger has mastered it and returned to Austria with a lot of new experience.She changed to FH Burgenland for her master's degree in Energy and Environmental Management. In 2017, she was one of four Erasmus students who represented 100,000 other students who went abroad to study Erasmus, which is now called Erasmus+. This was celebrated on the 30th anniversary, as this exchange program has been around for so long.The fascination for the geographical outskirts of Europe and formerly communist states has remained, and so Sarah Babinger is already planning her next Erasmus stay. It will lead her to Lithuania.

After studying in Cuba and in Graz as a North-South Dialogue scholarshipholder, Gibson Nyanhongo from Zimbabwe found his scientific home at the IFA Tulln, a branch of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna. Already as a pupil fascinated by microbiology, his teachers owed him many a deeper answer. He had almost no other option than to become a biotechnologist and to give these answers to himself.Today he is primarily conducting research on enzymes, the microscopic catalysts that make life on this planet possible. Every day these enzymes challenge him anew, just as he does them and in the end it often does not come out what he and his colleagues expected, but something much more exciting, such as smart hydrogels for medical use.In between, Gibson Nyanhongo helped at the University of Botswana to set up a new department for biology and biotechnology. Based on his experiences there, he draws a not entirely positive but quite hopeful picture of microbiological research in Africa.

The passion for teaching was put Dana Linkeschova from Brno / Czech Republic into her cradle. Her parents were both teachers. To this day, her passion for it has never changed. Since the 1990s she has been teaching at the Technical University of Brno, especially in the field of (self-) management and leadership. For more than 10 years, she has been coming to the Vienna University of Technology through the CEEPUS program once a year to offer the course "Management and Leadership". Not only her students, but also herself learn a lot in these courses and it never gets boring, just better.In this episode of the podcast Alumni AudioLab, she tells what she learned about management and about herself in Australia, where it starts and ends, and how management experience can benefit even a family of 6 grandchildren.

At an early age, Kalkidan Negash Obse discovered his interest in politics and democracy. Not surprisingly, as he witnessed the beginnings of democracy in Ethiopia as a young man in the 1990s.He started to study law and left Africa to acquire his Master’s degree in Miami. There he specialized in the field of human rights. Finally, in Austria, as a scholarship holder of the APPEAR programme, he finished his PhD in 2015. Back in Ethiopia he became scientific director and finally president of Dilla University in the south of the country.What it means to be president of a young African university, which challenges he faces, but also which experiences he gained from his time as a (human) law researcher you will hear in this issue of Alumni AudioLab.APPEAR is a programme of the Austrian Development Cooperation

Fernando Ruiz Peyré started his career as a teacher in Argentina in the 1990s. Education was a big concern of him even back then. In addition, he studied at an Argentine university and then in Germany for four years. But it went further than that and in 2006 he started his dissertation at the University of Innsbruck as a North South Dialogue scholarship holder, where he stays to this day.Fernando Ruiz Peyré conducts research in the area of tension between the city and the rural area, between center and periphery – especially with young people. How does a region develop itself and how its people? Who leaves, who comes and what are the reasons for that? What benefits, what harms do remote areas of Argentina have from natural resources? All these questions he pursues in his work and in this podcast episode.

Sara de Jong began her scientific career in her home country, the Netherlands. She received her master's degree in critical theory and politics from the University of Nottingham, where she completed her PhD as well. In October 2012 she came to Austria with an Ernst Mach worldwide scholarship and spent a year conducting research at the Department of Development Studies at the University of Vienna.Her research is situated in the area of ​​migration and development, especially at the interface between those who migrate and "develop" and those who work with them. This is where the so-called "cultural brokers" play a special role, a term for people who mediate between cultures. “Cultural brokers” have existed since the start of long-distance trips and travels, because humans have always been confronted with “the stranger” and have been in need for not only linguistic, but also cultural "translation".For Sara de Jong, politics is not primarily party politics. Rather it means to look at the larger picture of the functioning and existence of society and language from a political point of view.

Actually, Rosalie Hall wanted to become a lawyer and use political science only as a springboard. But her first experiences at the university, especially her teaching experiences, were influential and she decided to stay in political science. In 1996 she made her first academic experience abroad and went to the United States with a Fulbright scholarship for a master's degree. Instead of the planned two years, she stayed six years and also got her PhD degree. Her research interest was already on the military and especially gender research. Her home university is the University of the Philippines Visayas.She came to Austria for the first time in 2006 as a North-South Dialogue Fellow and conducted research at the University of Innsbruck on the Austrian Armed Forces. More than 10 years later she is back in Vienna as an Ernst Mach Follow-up scholarship holder and conducts research on the role of women (and men) in a male-dominated profession like the army.In this issue of Alumni AudioLab she talks about her life, her research and the joys and efforts of an academic career.Here you can find Rosalie Arcala Halls alumni portrait.

Vittorio Pace discovered his interest in pharmacy and thanks to his parents, who are both pharmacists. After completing his studies at the University of Perugia, he continued to study in Madrid and Pavia. In 2009 he was awarded an Ernst Mach scholarship to conduct research at the University of Vienna. He is a synthetic medicinal chemist with a particular focus on pharmaceutical chemistry. He did research in Belgium, Stockholm, Manchester and other cities, and since 2014 he has supervised an international group of young scientists, who conduct research on synthetic processes at the University of Vienna.In this podcast he talks about his life as a researcher, how important (international) contacts are, and he explains what the exciting thing about chemical synthesis is, how it works and what it is actually needed for.

Vanessa Suelt Cock is a professor of constitutional law in Bogota/Colombia. There she works at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana conducting research on human rights abuses and on violations of environmental law in large extraction corporations. In this context it is currently not possible to sue companies but only individual persons. In the course of her research stay as an Ernst Mach follow up scholarship holder at the University of Graz in June and July 2017, Vanessa Cock looked for ways in international law to hold companies accountable. As early as 2005, she conducted research on human rights in Graz as a North-South Dialogue scholarship holder.In this episode of Alumni AudioLab she tells her story and whether or not she was able to answer her research questions during her stay in Graz. She talks about the role of constitutional law in the Colombian peace treaty of 2016 signed between the government and the rebel group FARC, and she reveals whether law has something to do with justice.

Constantine Steven Labongo Loum comes from Northern Uganda, a fought over region for many years. He completed his bachelor degree in the mid-1990s in Food Science and Technology. He went on to undertake a master’s programme in Primary Health Care in London (distance learning) and another one in Agricultural and Rural Development in Ghent. Furthermore he worked as a nutritionist in a hospital in Gulu for more than a decade where he specialised on the connections between HIV and child malnutrition.His interest in the interaction between medicine and the cultural background of a society brought him to Vienna where he completed a PhD in cultural and social anthropology with a focus on medical anthropology. Today he works as a professor at the Gulu University, where he teaches medical anthropology. The medical anthropology programme at Gulu University was developed within an APPEAR Project, in which Constantine participated.In the early 1990s he personally experienced the horrors of the civil war in Northern Uganda.From April to June 2017 Constantine Loum was a scholarship holder of an Ernst Mach Follow-up Grant in Vienna.Further information:The creation of the Lord’s Resistance ArmyNight commuters

[This podcast episode is in German only]Kalina Kupczynska from Poland came into contact with the German language for the first time in a rather unusual way. All the same she remained true to it. After studying German studies in Łódź where she still does research and teaches today and a stay in Passau she received a Franz Werfel grant in 2002 and thus became a “Werfelian”. This grant for specialists in German studies from abroad who are specialising in Austrian literature brought her to Vienna for the first time for her dissertation. She specialised in the field of experimental literature and the “Viennese actionists”’ manifestos and dedicates her current research to autobiographic comics.

In 2000, he received his Master's degree as a North-South dialogue scholarship holder after completing a joint study programme at the "Institute for Water Education" in Delft, the Netherlands, and the Institute for Limnology in Mondsee/Salzburg. He remained faithful to fresh water research, although this topic was not his first choice when he commenced his studies. He completed his PhD at the Vienna University of Technology. This was the beginning of his career, which, as it continued, presented him with a variety of occupations, some of them even to his own surprise. Today, he is a leading expert in the organization Sustainable Energy for All.You can find Paul Yillias alumni portrait here.