Friends of IIASA

Friends of IIASA supported planning and fundraising for the Howard Raiffa Center, an initiative in honor of IIASA's first Director. Activities included consultations with stakeholders by FoI Executive Director Margaret Collins and FoI volunteer Judy Raiffa. In May 2022, a devising session was held at the IIASA 50th Anniversary Event in Boston, MA, which produced a series of new organizational documents, reviving the initiative after a period of dormancy during COVID.

Thanks to a grant in 2018 from Roger Levien, FoI was able to offer the Levien-RAND YSSP Fellowship to RAND doctoral student Swaptik Chowdhary to cover airfare and living costs for his participation in the 2022 Young Scientists Summer Program at IIASA.

Friends of IIASA collaborated with IIASA and the National Academy of Sciences to organize 2 events to mark IIASA's 50th Anniversary: a workshop co-sponsored by Boston University in May 2022 and a Town Hall meeting at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Chicago in December 2022. FoI also sponsored participation by the President of FoI, Adil Najam, as a speaker at the IIASA 50th Anniversary workshop in Austria and by FoI Executive Director Margaret Collins as a workshop participant.