Iris Rauskala

Iris Eliisa Rauskala (born 14 March 1978 in Helsinki) is a Finnish-born Austrian civil servant and economist who served as Minister of Education, Science and Research in the Bierlein government.^[1]

Iris Rauskala
Rauskala speaking in Vienna, 2019
Minister of Education
In office 3 June 2019 – 7 January 2020
Affiliation	Independent
Preceded by	Heinz Faßmann
Succeeded by	Heinz Faßmann
Personal details
Born	Iris Eliisa Rauskala (1978-03-14) 14 March 1978 (age 47) Helsinki, Finland
Education	University of Innsbruck (Dr.)

Inauguration of Iris Eliisa Rauskala with president Alexander Van der Bellen (2019)

Life and career

The daughter of a Finnish scientist father and an Austrian civil servant mother, Rauskala was born in Helsinki, where she lived until the age of five.^[2]

She studied international economics at the University of Innsbruck and completed a doctorate in 2006.^[3] Rauskala then joined the civil service in the Ministry of Economy and later the science ministry, working under ministers Johannes Hahn, Beatrix Karl and Karlheinz Töchterle [de]. She taught at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences from 2011 until she was appointed to a highly ranked position in the education ministry in 2015.^[4] She is deputy chairperson of the Austrian Science Fund board of supervisors.^[1]

On 3 June 2019 she was sworn in as Minister for Education, Science and Research in the interim government of Brigitte Bierlein. She was described as popular and "extremely dynamic".^[4]

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.^[5]