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5 June 2012
New Academy Professors for 2013–2017
Lauri Aaltonen is Academy Professor at the University of Helsinki and Director of the Academy of Finland’s
Centre of Excellence in Cancer Genetics Research. His research field is cancer genetics. His is widely recognised
as one of the world-leading scientists in his field and is highly esteemed among his international colleagues. The
research plan submitted by Aaltonen for his third term as Academy Professor is considered to represent the
international top in its field.
Aaltonen’s work is aimed at promoting the treatment and prevention of cancers. The work covers studies, data
analyses and modelling of how germline and somatic genetic variation contribute to cancer occurrence and
progression, as well as the use of research results in medical applications and researcher training. The rapid
advances in genomic technologies pose great challenges to experimental work, computing, modelling and statistics.
Aaltonen’s research team is considered to have excellent potential to contribute to international advances and
breakthroughs in all these subfields. The research results are expected to greatly benefit Finnish society.
Yrjö Helariutta is Professor of Plant Developmental Biology at the University of Helsinki and Research Director
of the university’s Institute of Biotechnology. His research fields are plant biology, developmental biology and
physiology, genetics, and cellular and molecular biology. Helariutta and his research team focus their research on
the development of vascular systems of plants. They will investigate how the plant stem cell population, called
vascular cambium, is genetically controlled to pattern and promote the formation of the vascular tissues in a tree
trunk. The research team uses the Arabidopsis root procambium as a model for cambial development. Helariutta’s
team has greatly contributed to that Arabidopsis root development is widely seen as a key model for plant
organogenesis.
During his term as Academy Professor, Helariutta will investigate cytokinin as a regulatory component in wood
development. The research will focus on how hormone cytokinin regulates vascular growth and how the cell-to-cell
move of cytokinin and other regulatory components regulates this process. Besides Arabidopsis thaliana, the team
also uses poplar and birch as model organisms. The research results are expected to increase our understanding of
individual regulatory mechanisms and also to provide new knowledge to benefit forest tree breeding and wood
processing. Helariutta’s research is part of the EfFibre Programme within Forestcluster Ltd, one of the Strategic
Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation. The programme represents a totally new approach in the forest
sector.
Jaakko Kaprio is Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Helsinki and Research Professor at the
National Institute of Health and Welfare. His research field is genetics. Professor Kaprio is widely recognised as
one of the world-leading experts in the genetics of dependence. He tries to find answers to the key questions of
nicotine dependence and its consequences to public health. He works to map and characterise the genes and
epigenetic mechanisms that predispose to nicotine dependence and that can explain the connection between
smoking and smoking-related diseases. Another aim is to investigate how the interaction between genes and the
environment affects genetic predisposition.
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One in four adult Finns smoke, and one in two of smokers will die of smoking-related diseases. Smoking is also
associated with other major problems in terms of public health, such as alcoholism and depression, and an
increased cancer risk. In his research, Kaprio and his team use Finland’s twin registry, in whose development
Kaprio himself has played a key role.
Antti Kupiainen is Professor at the University of Helsinki and his research field is mathematical physics. He is
considered to be the most visible Finnish scientist and an internationally recognised leader in his field. Kupiainen is
Director of the Academy of Finland’s Centre of Excellence in Analysis and Dynamic Research. He has previously
been Academy Professor in 1999–2008. Kupiainen is President of the International Association of Mathematical
Physics (IAMP). He has also been awarded the ERC Advanced Grant by the European Research Council.
Kupiainen’s research project will focus on mathematical physics of out-of-equilibrium systems and statistical
geometry. Both of these are highly topical research subjects in which Kupiainen has achieved significant and
trailblazing results in recent years. The aim is to reach breakthroughs in diffusion and heat conduction. Statistical
geometry is a new and very active research field at the interface of mathematics and physics, and is also associated
with function theory, in which Finland has a strong research tradition.
Juha Merilä is Professor of Population Genetics at the University of Helsinki. His research fields are ecology,
evolutionary biology and ecophysiology, genetics, developmental biology and physiology, systems biology and
bioinformatics. He has previously worked as Academy Professor in 2006–2011, when his team was also part of the
Academy of Finland’s Centre of Excellence in Evolutionary Genetics and Physiology.
With his new breakthroughs, Professor Merilä has inspired both research and thinking in a number of subfields of
evolutionary biology and has developed genetic approaches to several generally interesting questions. Merilä’s
studies on phenotypic genetics and genotype-environment interaction in natural populations have been trailblazing
and highly topical. During his term as Academy Professor, he will investigate cryptic adaptation and convergent
evolution by applying modern genomic and statistical methods. As a model organism, Merilä uses ninespine
sticklebacks, whose isolated northern small-lake populations are very suitable for model systems in gene mapping.
The research results will be significant to gain a better understanding of the evolution and preservation of
biological biodiversity but also of climate change adaptation and the evolution of fisheries.
Uskali Mäki is Professor and Research Director at the University of Helsinki. His research field is the philosophy
of science and methodology. Mäki has made his international scientific breakthrough as one of the founders of the
philosophy of modern economics. He is considered to be the researcher who has most contributed to the
development of the philosophy of economics worldwide, and his research team has a widely recognised position
within the international research community. Mäki intends to establish an interdisciplinary philosophy, which is
also on the agenda of the research plan he has drafted for his Academy Professorship. Mäki will pursue two parallel
and mutually supporting lines of inquiry: philosophical analyses of aspects of economics and other disciplines in
their interrelations; and general philosophical accounts of interdisciplinary relations and dynamics in terms of
models, explanation and mechanism, evidence and progress.
Mäki is Director of the Academy of Finland’s Centre of Excellence in Philosophy of the Social Sciences at the
University of Helsinki. He has previously been Academy Professor in 2006–2011, when he set up a research team
(Trends and Tensions in Intellectual Integration, TINT) that has emerged into an internationally highly recognised
interdisciplinary research community in the social sciences.
Kari Rissanen has been Academy Professor in 2008–2012 at the University of Jyväskylä and has now been reappointed for a second term. His research field is supramolecular chemistry, nanochemistry and X-ray
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crystallography. Within supramolecular chemistry, Rissanen is a well-renowned expert, both in structural research
and synthetics. The focus of his research is on weak intermolecular interactions in solid state materials, solutions
and gaseous phases. Special attention is paid to hydrogen and halogen bonds and the coordination chemistry of
transition metals. The novel nano- and supramolecular systems that Rissanen has constructed are built on weak
intermolecular interactions. Halogen bonding is a relatively new concept, and Rissanen’s contribution has been
crucial to understanding its mechanisms and potential to use it.
Rissanen’s aim is to construct novel encapsulated supramolecules by applying metal coordination or halogen
bonding and new halogen-bonded and organic two- or three-dimensional frameworks. These new lines of inquiry
are expected to result in major advances and breakthroughs in supramolecular chemistry and nanochemistry.
Elina Vuola is Adjunct Professor at the University of Helsinki. Her research field is theology. Vuola is an
internationally esteemed classical feminist theologian and a recognised expert in Latin American studies. She has
established active research networks and collaborations with scholars in North America, Latin America and
Scandinavia. Her research has a highly interdisciplinary approach.
Vuola’s research plan for her Academy Professorship is entitled “Embodied Religion. Changing Meanings of Body
and Gender in Contemporary Forms of Religious Identity in Finland”. The project combines ethnographic and
textual methods in studying three minority religious (partly also ethnic) communities (Laestadianism, the Jewish
community, the Orthodox church) considered ‘conservative’ in Finland on their views of gender, the relationships
between men and women and how these are related to the ideals of the surrounding society. The project aims at
developing a research tradition that would combine research on religion as lived religion (ethnography) with a
theological analysis, to give a more comprehensive picture of how theology and the religious identity interact,
particularly in contexts where these might be in tension with each other. This includes issues related to gender and
sexuality, but also to poverty, ethnicity and the overall meaning of the Judeo-Christian tradition in relation to
secular understandings of equality and human rights.
More information:

Academy of Finland President Heikki Mannila, tel. +358 9 7748 8210, and Vice President for Research,
Riitta Mustonen, tel. +358 9 7748 8220

Biosciences and Environment Research Unit, Director Laura Raaska, tel. +358 9 7748 8336, and Science
Adviser Timo Sareneva, tel. +358 9 7748 8243

Culture and Society Research Unit, Director Liisa Hakamies-Blomqvist, tel. +358 9 7748 8223, and
Senior Science Adviser Raija Matikainen, tel. +358 9 7748 8348

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Unit, Director Susan Linko, tel. +358 9 7748 8215, and Senior
Science Adviser Ritva Taurio, tel. +358 9 7748 8384

Health Research Unit, Director Jarmo Wahlfors, tel. +358 9 7748 8328, and Science Adviser Sara
Illman, tel. +358 9 7748 8294
Academy of Finland Communications
Director of Communications Maj-Lis Tanner
tel. +358 9 7748 8347
maj-lis.tanner(at)aka.fi