Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS)

The Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) is only a couple of years old but is already becoming one of Germany’s leading transdisciplinary institutes on sustainability, open and inviting to international talents in sustainability and green technologies.

Founded in 2009, the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) has set out ambitious goals for itself. The young institute is striving to further the important task of global sustainability. Particularly in the areas of climate change, earth systems and sustainable development, as well as the social dialogue at the intersection between research, politics, civil society and the media. Its focus is firmly on developing new (green) technologies, attracting the best scientific minds, internationally as well as locally, and finding solutions to the effects of climate change.

One of its most important tasks in achieving these goals is to build an international network that brings together the best scientists to conduct cutting-edge interdisciplinary research. IASS shares the Green Talents Initiative’s strong belief that international collaboration can lead to surprising results and therefore also strives to connect world-renowned scientists to one another. Locally, they are also collaborating with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK, which the Green Talents visited last in 2012) and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ, which was visited last in 2010).

The IASS is funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) and the State of Brandenburg. It is located in Potsdam.

Short summary of the visit to the IASS on 29. October 2013

Today the group went off in the morning to make its way to the historical city of Potsdam. But beside the world-famous parks and palaces of Sanssouci - which is by the way the largest World Heritage Site in Germany - Potsdam is also internationally known to be a hot-spot of science. One of these world class facilities is the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) where the Green Talents had their second visit. The IASS is promoting interdisciplinary science and research for global sustainability, particularly in the areas of climate change, the earth system and the development of new technologies. The visit is not the first involvement of IASS in the Green Talents Initiative as for example Green Talent Sabaa Ahmad Khan (2012) conducted her research stay there and Green Talent Xue Bing (2010) will be associated with the IASS in the framework of the Climate Protection Fellowship of the Alexander-von-Humboldt-Foundation.

Because of the outstanding group of young scientists and the close cooperation in the past, Secretary General Dr. Dr. Mario Tobias personally welcomed the group and gave a short overview of the institute and its various projects. This was followed by presentations of projects of the different IASS-sections including an interactive element lead by Britta Bookhagen and Dr. Andreas Bühn that showed the Green Talents how many different, rare and hard-to-recycle components their mobile phones consist of. After lunch at the prestigious old villa with scientists from different working groups the afternoon was reserved for group work on the much controversially discussed topic “Climate Engineering”. Because of the topic but most of all due to the great organization of the presenting scientists Dr. Harald Stelzer and Dr. Thomas Bruhn it became a lively and inspiring discussion about the advantages and risks related to this field. With a lot of new impressions and insights the group left IASS and Potsdam and continued to Weimar.