Iris Rauskala

Iris Rauskala
File:Iris Rauskala, 2019 (49085196376).jpg 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 Helsinki, Finland
Education	University of Innsbruck (Dr.)

File:2019 Angelobung Iris Eliisa Rauskala (48000355362) (cropped).jpg

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

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.

Life

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

She studied international economics at the University of Innsbruck and completed a doctorate in 2006. 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. 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. She is deputy chairperson of the Austrian Science Fund 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. 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.