%0 Journal Article
%T Natural Sciences in Academic Vienna in the 1990s: From “[Peripheral] Outpost Near the Iron Curtain” to “Central Hub”
%A Kastenhofer, Karen
%J Studia Historiae Scientiarum
%V 2022
%R 10.4467/2543702XSHS.22.016.15982
%N 21 (2022)
%P 515-552
%K history of biology, University of Vienna, scientific persona, generations in academia, contemporary history of science, molecular revolution, techno-epistemic culture
%@ 2451-3202
%D 2022
%U https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/studia-historiae-scientiarum/artykul/natural-sciences-in-academic-vienna-in-the-1990s-from-peripheral-outpost-near-the-iron-curtain-to-central-hub
%X 
	In 1999, four editorials in the journal Biological Chemistry commemorate how, since the 1980s, Vienna has transformed from a “[peripheral] outpost near the Iron Curtain” to a “central hub” for life science research.

	A closer look at these texts reveals the explicit and implicit role of drawing maps for and within science, depicting centers, peripheries and ‒ in this case ‒ geopolitically real and allegorical “iron curtains”.

	Based on this observation and the issues it raises, I re-examine the pertinent empirical material covering relevant times, places, (sub-) disciplines and institutions, as well as the period after 2000. I deal with “molecularization” in biology, (sub)disciplinary differentiation, internationalization, as well as changes in public-private relations and a pair of complementary concepts of innovation and tradition. Thus, I retrace the establishment of a techno-epistemic culture in a local, disciplinary context.

	I conclude that guiding principles such as excellence and internationality are understood and implemented in academia in locally and historically bounded ways, and I argue that a critical re-examination of empirical material can substantially enrich our approach to such topics.