Four new Professors appointed at the Ģֱ in the fields of physics, animal ecology, cell and molecular biology and mathematics
Pekka Koskinen is a specialist of nanostructures and a developer of education
Professor of physics Pekka Koskinen's studies focus on computational nanophysics. Koskinen studies the mechanical and electromechanical properties of low-dimensional nanostructures, predicts new nanostructures, and develops computational methods. The studied nanomaterials include graphene, nanotubes, and nanowires.
Since 2007, Koskinen has worked at the Ģֱ as a Postdoctoral Fellow, a Research Fellow of the Academy of Finland, and a Senior Lecturer. Since 2018, he has been the Vice Head of the Department of Physics responsible for communication and education. Koskinen has distinguished himself as an active teaching developer. He has participated in the development of many award-winning new learning models and methods. He has been awarded the Lecturer of the year at the Department of Physics twice and has received the Ģֱ's Teaching Developer Prize in 2012 and 2019.
"As a professor, I aim to develop cooperation between departments and faculties to bring education research closer to institutions' and teachers' everyday life. I also wish to develop our Opi fysiikkaa (Learn physics) –channel on Youtube with local and national cooperation. Moreover, I cherish deepening our cooperation with institutes of secondary education through the continuous learning model that is currently under development," says Pekka Koskinen.
Tapio Mappes explores how wild animals adapt to a rapidly changing environment
Professor of animal ecology Tapio Mappes specialises in the study of evolutionary ecology, with the goal of predicting mechanisms that guide animal adaptation and development under different environmental conditions. With his research team he is carrying out extensive field experiments in which researchers are testing how e.g. urbanization, climate change and pollution are effecting on wildlife populations. Experiments are being carried out in the nuclear affected areas of Chernobyl and Fukushima, among others.
“Man changes the environment with an accelerating speed. Animal populations have been forced to either evolve along with the change or die out. In my research I try to find out how are the animal populations able to respond to change. This information will help, if there is political will, to change human activity so that organisms and ecosystems remain functional in the future,” says Mappes.
Professor Mappes has worked at the Ģֱ as an Academy Fellow and as a Research Fellow of Academy of Finland from 1995 to 2008. He was a deputy professor from 2010 to 2014 and a University Lecturer from 2014 to 2020. Mappes has been an expert on several international funding search and radiation ecological organizations. He was a member of the executive teams in two Centers of Excellence of Academy of Finland in 2000-2011. He has published 120 peer-reviewed scientific articles, among several published in top series.
Varpu Marjomäki is a specialist in virus-cell interactions
Professor of cell and molecular biology Varpu Marjomäki’s studies represent multidisciplinary nanoscience. Varpu Marjomäki has specialized in the infection mechanisms of enteroviruses, but, in addition to enteroviruses, she also studies coronaviruses, e.g. pandemic COVID19 virus. Recently, her research has been more oriented towards the study of viral stability: what triggers the virus to open up to release its genome for efficient production of new viruses, and what factors can prevent this.
“In teaching, my goal is to reform the teaching of cell and molecular biology by including new findings from basic research related to cell-virus interactions and antiviral research”, Marjomäki says.
At the Ģֱ Varpu Marjomäki has been an Academy Research Fellow since 2007 and University Lecturer since 2009. She is an adjunct professor of the Ģֱ and honorary research associate at the University of Cape Town, South Africa since 2018. Marjomäki has published 102 peer-reviewed scientific papers involving several papers in high impact journals and publications in top series. She has released one software platform, two patents and two invention disclosures. Marjomäki is a member of the board in the Foundation for Research in Virus Diseases and the vice president at the Nordic Microscopy Society.
Enrico Le Donne is specialized in subRiemannian geometry
Professor of mathematics Enrico Le Donne’s areas of research are metric geometry and differential geometry, together with geometric measure theory and geometric group theory. He is considered an expert in subRiemannian geometry, which is an area with connection with control theory, robotics, and other dynamical systems.
During the year he has been at the Ģֱ, he was awarded with several significant research grants: a starting grant awarded by the European Research Council and two grants of the Finnish Academy, a Finnish Academy Fellowship and a Finnish Academy Project which is continuing until 2023.
Le Donne has been working for the Ģֱ since 2012. Now he has a part-time position with the university and his main position is at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.
For further information:
Pekka Koskinen, pekka.j.koskinen@jyu.fi, tel. 040 805 4089
Tapio Mappes, tapio.mappes@jyu.fi, tel. 040 586 0978
Varpu Marjomäki, varpu.s.marjomaki@jyu.fi tel. 040 563 4422
Enrico Le Donne, enrico.e.ledonne@jyu.fi