The acronym also refers to the Roman god Janus. He is portrayed with two heads looking in opposite directions: the gate to the Temple of Janus on the Roman Forum was open in times of war and closed in times of peace. Issues of war and peace, i.e. scientific and technical peace and conflict research, are still the focus of the “IANUS” working group at TU Darmstadt. Responsible for the content are the professorships for Science and Technology for Peace and Security (Computer Science) and, since the summer semester 2024, for Scientific Peace Research (Physics).
Cooperating closely with FiF, of which IANUS has been an organisational part since 2018, they are currently helping to shape the fortunes of the network at TU Darmstadt.
History of IANUS
IANUS has a long and eventful history dating back to the peace movement of the 1980s. Initiated by Professors Kankeleit (Physics), Nixdorff (Biology), Ipsen (Economics) and Krabs (Mathematics) as a research project funded by the VW Foundation, IANUS became a central institution of TU Darmstadt in the early 1990s. The work of the research group was highly honoured beyond the borders of Germany and was awarded the Göttingen Peace Prize in 2000. The celebration of the 20th anniversary in 2008 was a highlight of the IANUS activities, which were largely organised by Franz Fujara and Wolfgang Liebert (both from the physics department). The departure of the latter to the University of Vienna also led to a new programmatic orientation of IANUS in accordance with the changed social and political challenges. In 2019, a ceremony was held to mark the 30th anniversary of IANUS, which was celebrated with long-time IANUS companions. A short time before this (2018), IANUS became part of the Forum for Interdisciplinary Research (FiF). The integration was significantly supported by Alfred Nordmann (Philosophy) on the IANUS side. Since then, it has been the task of IANUS to open up new perspectives for the interdisciplinary work of IANUS under the roof of FiF. This means that IANUS topics are encouraged as part of the call for proposals for TU funding for research projects, events are organised on topics relating to challenges in research and the IANUS Prize is awarded annually for outstanding academic papers that deal with IANUS-relevant issues.
