Iris Eliisa Rauskala (born 14 March 1978 in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

) is a Finnish-born

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

and

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

who served as Minister of Education, Science and Research in the

Bierlein government The Bierlein government () was the 32nd Government of Austria following the collapse of the First Kurz government headed by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz in the aftermath of the Ibiza affair. Sworn in on 3 June 2019, the Bierlein government was the ...

Life and career

The daughter of a Finnish scientist father and an Austrian civil servant mother, Rauskala was born in

, where she lived until the age of five. She studied

international economics International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity from international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the international institutions that affect them. It seeks to explain the patterns an ...

at the

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (; ) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. It is the largest education facility in the Austrian States of Austria, ...

and completed a doctorate in 2006. Rauskala then joined the civil service in the

Ministry of Economy A Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Economic Affairs, or Department of Commerce is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the economy or economic policy. List Examples of such mi ...

and later the science ministry, working under ministers

Johannes Hahn Johannes Hahn (born 2 December 1957) is an Austrian politician who has served as European Commissioner for Budget and Administration under Ursula von der Leyen since 1 December 2019. He previously served as European Commissioner for Neighbourho ...

Beatrix Karl Beatrix Karl (born 10 December 1967) is an Austrian academic and politician. A former member of the National Council, she served as Minister for Science and Research (2010–2011) and as Minister of Justice (2011–2013) in the first Faymann go ...

and . She taught at the

Zurich University of Applied Sciences The Zürich University of Applied Sciences (, ZFH) is a governing body composed of four separate universities. It is located in the city of Winterthur, with facilities in Zürich and Wädenswil, is the second largest university in Switzerland a ...

from 2011 until she was appointed to a highly ranked position in the education ministry in 2015. She is deputy chairperson of the

Austrian Science Fund The Austrian Science Fund () is the most important Austrian funding organization for basic research. The FWF supports research in science, engineering, and the humanities through a large variety of grant programmes, prizes and by funding infrastru ...

board of supervisors. On 3 June 2019 she was sworn in as Minister for Education, Science and Research in the interim government of

Brigitte Bierlein Brigitte Bierlein (; 25 June 1949 – 3 June 2024) was an Austrian jurist who served as President of the Constitutional Court from 2018 to 2019 and as Chancellor of Austria from 2019 to 2020. An independent, she was the first woman to hold eith ...

. She was described as popular and "extremely dynamic". In 2018, she married a woman and published that fact in an interview briefly after her inauguration. According to her, there were never any negative reactions.

References

External links

* 1978 births Living people Finnish emigrants Immigrants to Austria Government ministers of Austria Women government ministers of Austria Austrian women economists Austrian LGBTQ politicians Austrian lesbians Lesbian politicians University of Innsbruck alumni 21st-century Austrian economists 21st-century Austrian women politicians 21st-century Austrian politicians LGBTQ government ministers 20th-century Austrian LGBTQ people 21st-century Austrian LGBTQ people Finnish people of Austrian descent Austrian people of Finnish descent {{austria-politician-stub