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institute news 28 options + summer 2016 www.iiasa.ac.at news at iiasa Asian collaborations IIASA delegations traveled to Beijing and Seoul in March to enhance collaborations with academics and policymakers. While in Seoul, IIASA Director General and CEO Professor Dr. Pavel Kabat gave a public lecture on “Robust decisions for sustainable future: a role of applied system analysis” at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and participated in the IIASA–Korea University organized Mid‑Latitude R/D Network Workshop alongside IIASA researchers. Kabat also met with newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Joon Sik Lee, who also serves as a member of the IIASA Science Advisory Committee. Discussions with Lee, and other high‑level representatives, focused on how IIASA could further enhance collaborations with Korea, in terms of research and capacity building. While in China, Kabat met with Professor Lin Jianhua, president of Peking University, Professor Qiu Yong, president of Tsinghua University, and Professor Liu Congqiang, vice president of the National Natural Science Foundation of China—the IIASA National Member Organization representing China. The IIASA delegation, which included program directors Markus Amann and Ulf  Dieckmann, as well as researchers Günther Fischer, Samir KC, Wei Liu, and Matthias Wildemeersch, participated in a workshop at Peking University on reconciling economic development and environmental sustainability. In addition to these trips, at the time Options went to press IIASA visits to Egypt and Vietnam were also planned, for meetings with National Member Organizations to discuss enhancing collaborations. Full details of all of these visits can be found at www.iiasa.ac.at/director/news. PB Making connections in Washington DC A n IIASA delegation traveled to Washington in February 2015 to strengthen ties with the US as a member country, paving the way for continued fruitful collaborations, and to attend the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). As well as meeting with the US National Member Organization— the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)—the delegation enhanced relationships with the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), meeting with the Director of OSTP and Assistant to President Obama for Science and Technology John Holdren, who is also an IIASA alumni, and Steve Fetter, head of OSTP’s National Security and International Affairs division. IIASA helps its member countries use scientific collaborations to build international partnerships, and the topic of science diplomacy was high on the agenda in discussions with Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State Vaughan Turekian, and when visiting the newly opened Cuban Embassy. IIASA, NAS, and the Austrian Embassy also co‑sponsored a symposium—International Scientific Cooperation for Global Sustainability—which covered three topics: reaching the UN  Sustainable Development Goals; the use of carbon sequestration; and the challenges of a rapidly changing Arctic. At the AAAS conference itself IIASA organized a session entitled Sustainable Development Goals: Paths Forward, which focused on the science behind UN Sustainable Development Goals and how scientific cooperation can help reach these ambitious targets. Former participants of the IIASA Young Scientists Summer Program, Sennai Mesfin, Franziska Gaupp, and Zhimin Mao, also  presented posters at the conference. DB www.iiasa.ac.at/events/AAAS-16