Austrian Scientists & Scholars
in North America

Latest Past Events

Andreas Kurz: Mexico’s Second Empire and the United States

The Second Mexican Empire (1864–1867) under Maximilian of Habsburg is often underestimated in historiography. Orchestrated by Napoleon III, the French intervention had major geopolitical consequences and reflected Europe’s fraught relationship with its former colonies. Colonial dynamics—still visible today, particularly in U.S.–Latin American relations—shaped Mexico’s development with lasting effects. After the U.S. Civil War, the Monroe […]

Caroline Moosmüller: Geometry for Medicine: New Tools to Analyze High-Dimensional Data

Modern medicine generates vast and complex data sets, ranging from medical images to genetic measurements. A central challenge is to compare such data in a meaningful way in order to identify patterns, group similar samples, and better understand disease. Classical machine learning methods often struggle when data is high-dimensional, noisy, or lacks a simple geometric […]

Alexander Lercher: Innate immune memory – how past infections influence future diseases – ASciNA Virtual Talk

Our immune system has the remarkable ability to remember past infections. Adaptive immune memory is highly specific and targets previously encountered pathogens. This powerful defense mechanism allows for rapid eradication of familiar pathogens and forms the basis of vaccines. However, some viruses, such as influenza, are constantly changing, which makes adaptive immune memory less effective […]