Honorary doctors in technology 2020 - 2022

Professor Maria Luísa Coutinho Gomes de Almeida, Mechanical Engineering, University of Lisbon, Portugal

Luísa Coutinho is full Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Lisbon and Executive Director of the European Welding Federation. She has several international awards and positions. As an active entrepreneur she was the founder of four industrial companies. The scientific experience includes coordination and participation in over 90 national and international projects, 74 of which involved the technology transfer to industries. She has written over 140 papers in international journals and at the national level has written short papers, journal articles and press releases. She has been interviewed by several national publications. She has been the scientific supervisor of 18 doctoral thesis and over 100 master’s theses. The collaboration with the European Commission started in the 1980`s as evaluator of proposals for scientific projects and more recently as external expert. She has been invited to give talks and lectures, including over 50 key note lectures in events around the world. 

Professor Luísa Coutinho has been a Member of Scientific Advisory Board of School of Engineering of Aalto University in 2016. She is a co-author in scientific publications produced in cooperation with Aalto University: one book, four papers in international peer reviewed journals and four papers in conference proceedings since 2013. She has had an active role in promoting the cooperation and sharing of students and researchers between the Departments of Mechanical Engineering of Aalto University and University of Lisbon since 2013.

Professor Anjana Devi, Inorganic Materials Chemistry, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany

Professor Devi is a researcher at the frontiers in the field of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technology. Professor Devi is a world-leading scientist particularly concerning the precursor chemistry for ALD and CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) thin-film fabrication. She has strongly contributed to bringing the ALD and CVD research communities together. She has organised major joint international ALD and CVD conferences and has led EU projects and major German projects (involving many big companies) in the field.

Professor Devi is expected to continue to serve as a key international collaboration partner in the fields of functional materials and ALD thin-film technology. There has been a continuous on-going mutual exchange between the fields at all levels since 2014 with Aalto University. She has had joint PhD student supervision since 2015, and she has produced/collaborated to high-impact joint scientific publications.

The ALD–CVD field has been very timely for Aalto and for Finland since the 2018 Millennium Technology Prize was awarded to Tuomo Suntola.  It is also important for Aalto due to the university's strong contribution and history in the field since the 1980s. 

Professor Antti-Pekka Jauho, Theoretical Nanotechnology, Technical University of Denmark

Antti-Pekka Jauho is currently Professor of Theoretical Nanotechnology and Section Leader at the Department of Physics at the Technical University of Denmark. His research interests encompass theoretical modeling of electronic, optical, mechanical and transport properties of nanoscale structures, often in conditions far from equilibrium. He has co-authored a widely used textbook on the topic, and produced more than 200 original contributions to journals. Since 2012, he has led the Danish Center of Excellence for Nanostructured Graphene.

For more than three decades Professor Jauho has actively collaborated with several research groups at Aalto University and its forerunner, the Helsinki University of Technology. From 2007 to 2010, he held the position of Finnish Distinguished Professor at the university, contributing especially to research in the Centre of Excellence in Computational Nanoscience (COMP). He has acted as an external opponent and examiner at several doctoral dissertations as well as an external assessor at several professor recruitments at Aalto. Antti-Pekka Jauho is a Foreign Member of The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters since 2003.

Professor Emeritus Juan R. Mosig, Institute of Electrical engineering, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland

Professor Emeritus Juan R. Mosig was the Head of the Laboratory of Electromagnetics and Acoustics (LEMA) of EPFL during 1999–2016. He made LEMA one of the most prestigious units of electromagnetics, antennas and space technology in the academic world. He has been a member of the COST Senior Scientific Committee, the Swiss Federal Commission for Space Applications, and Chairman of the EPFL Space Center. He is a founding member of the European Association on Antennas and Propagation (EurAAP), which he chaired from 2005 to 2015. Professor Mosig has decades of scientific and technical research with hundreds of publications in the fields of electromagnetics, computational methods, planar antennas, terahertz applications, and novel antenna technologies.

His long-time research collaboration beginning in the 1980’s with Aalto radio science and electromagnetics researchers includes organising visits by Finnish researchers to the EPFL and building international networks with professors of Aalto University.

President Tuula Teeri, The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA), Sweden

Tuula Teeri is President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in Sweden. She was the first President of Aalto University from 2009 to 2017. Teeri set the direction for the newly established Aalto and created the first tenure track career system in Aalto and in Finland.  She made raising the level of research one of the university's most important missions. Already in its early years, Aalto invested heavily in research funding by significantly developing the research services.

Prior to Aalto, Teeri worked over 12 years as professor and Vice President at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. She received her doctorate in Enzyme Technology from the University of Helsinki in 1987, and during 1987-1997 Teeri worked in research and leadership positions at VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland. Numerous commissions of trust and recognition from the scientific community attest to the breadth of her extensive international network and her role in promoting education, research and innovations. In 2016, Teeri received the CASE Europe Leadership Award for education in Brussels. She has evaluated several universities and was the President of the European Network of Leading Universities of Science and Technology from 2016 to 2018. Teeri has served on the board of strategic research councils in several countries and universities, as well as for ETLA Economic Research, the Finnish business and policy forum EVA and Vinnova. She also served on the Foundation Board of the prestigious Marcus Wallenberg Prize from 2011 to 2071.

Executive Vice President Juha Kostiainen, YIT group

Juha Kostiainen is YIT Group’s Executive Vice President, Urban Development. He has previously worked in the management of the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, as Director of Economic Development at the City of Tampere and as Managing Director of Finn-Medi Oy. 

Kostiainen earned a Doctor of Administrative Sciences degree in 2002. The topic of his doctoral thesis was the competitiveness of urban regions. He has authored dozens of scientific publications on urban development and housing. He has led several extensive urban development projects, researched the dynamics of the competitiveness of urban regions and applied research-based knowledge in practice. He actively takes part in public debate and has published more than 300 posts in his blog at nokkelakaupunki.fi. 

At Aalto University, Kostiainen has served as a preliminary examiner and opponent of doctoral theses and as a master’s thesis advisor for a large number of students. He has promoted the funding of several doctoral and other research projects, co-authored scientific articles and participated in research project management group. Furthermore, Kostiainen is a highly-esteemed lecturer in several courses taught at Aalto University. He holds the position of Adjunct Professor at Tampere University, specialising in the strategic development of urban regions. 

Chief Executive Officer Mårten Mickos, HackerOne

Master of Science (Technology) Mårten Mickos is the CEO of HackerOne. HackerOne is the world’s leading provider of ethical hacking, making digital systems resistant to attack by collaborating with the best security hackers in the world. In 2001–2008, Mickos was the CEO of the open-source software company MySQL AB. It was sold to the database company Sun Microsystems for a billion dollars in early 2008.

An active participant in public discussion, Mickos is known for his advocacy of an open information society and promotion of technology entrepreneurship as well as equality, tolerance and diversity. In his work he supports young students, entrepreneurs and female leaders in topics such as business strategy, category disruption, leadership, career, and self-development. He has received several technology awards, such as the 2006 Nokia Foundation Award for advancing the use of open-source technology.

Mickos graduated from Helsinki University of Technology – the predecessor of Aalto University – in 1993, majoring in engineering physics. He has been prominently involved in Aalto’s alumni activities, for example as a speaker in seminars and student events. The companies led by Mickos have been studied in several research projects at Aalto University.

Chair of the Board Marjo Miettinen, Ensto Oy

Marjo Miettinen is Chair of the Board of Ensto Oy and board member of Ensto Invest Oy where she has held various managerial positions since 1988. From 2006 to 2014, she served as the CEO of EM Group. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in education.

At the early stages of her business career, Miettinen also actively worked for various trade associations and branch associations in the field of technology. She was the first woman to be appointed Chair of the Board of Directors of Technology Industries of Finland. During Miettinen’s chairpersonship, Technology Industries of Finland has striven to promote future skills and work and innovation. Miettinen is also one of the founders of the Women in Tech Finland network whose aim is to encourage women to work in technology.

Miettinen is a member of the board of the Technology Academy Finland (TAF), the Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA, ETLA Economic Research, P2X Solutions Oy, Solidium Oy, and the association of European Family Businesses. She is also a member of the Finnish Research and Innovation Council. In addition, Miettinen is also Chair of the Board of the Foundation of the Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers (TT).

Miettinen has significantly contributed to the role of high technology and the related research in Finnish society in her key positions in Finnish business and technology industries. In addition, she has actively promoted the collaboration between Aalto University and Ensto for the development of smart electric systems.

Chair of the Strategic Advisory Board Jürgen Mlynek, European Union's Quantum Flagship

Jürgen Mlynek chairs the Strategic Advisory Board of the Quantum Flagship, a research and innovation initiative funded by the European Commission. Mlynek is Professor of Experimental Physics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in Germany and served as president of the same university from 2000 to 2005. In 2005–2015, he led the largest research organisation in Germany, the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres. Among his offices are Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Falling Walls Foundation, Chairman of the Foundation Board at the "Haus der kleinen Forscher", Chairman of the Wilhelm und Else Heraeus Foundation, as well as member of various university and science committees.

Mlynek has done groundbreaking work in the fields of experimental quantum optics, atomic physics, and surface physics. He participated in the building of the first atom interferometer in the field of atom optics.

Mlynek has been a Heisenberg Fellow of the German Research Foundation, a key German research funding organisation, and served as Vice-President of the German Research Foundation from 1996 to 2001. He has received a number of significant awards for his work which has been featured in the most prestigious science journals, such as Nature and Science. 

Mlynek has collaborated with Finnish researchers since the 1970s, amongst others in the context of the Quantum Flagship, which involves collaboration with several Finnish research groups. Also known for his active contributions to the scientific education of young people, Mlynek has supervised several postdoctoral researchers for example at Humboldt-Universität. In addition, many of his former students have very actively visited Finland, acting for example as visiting professors and opponents in public examinations of doctoral theses.

Chief Executive Officer Tuomas Tenkanen, Mobidiag Ltd

Tuomas Tenkanen is the CEO of Mobidiag Ltd, a company developing molecular diagnostics and equipment for infectious diseases and antibiotic resistance.  Hospital laboratories in Europe and Finland, such as HUSLAB, belong to company’s clientele.  As a forerunner in biotechnology, Mobidiag was sold for a considerable price to Hologic Inc. in 2021.

Tenkanen’s groundbreaking work represents the key research areas of Aalto University, including biosciences and health and wellbeing technologies. In his work, he combines enzymatics, diagnostics equipment and IT know-how.

In 1987, Tenkanen was working on his master’s thesis in Finnzymes. Finnzymes was a biotechnology company based in Otaniemi at the Department of Chemistry (now part of the Aalto University School of Chemical Engineering), manufacturing enzymes for DNA research. Tenkanen led Finnzymes’ research, development and manufacturing operations in Espoo until 2010 when he saw through the sale of the company to the American laboratory giant Thermo Fisher Scientific. In 2013 Tenkanen led the fusion of one French and two Finnish companies which enabled a concentration of technologies from various fields of research, thus forming the foundation for the success of Mobidiag Ltd.

Tenkanen has significantly promoted the role of high technology and related research in Finnish society. His work is a great example of Aalto University’s entrepreneurial vision where globally relevant products and technologies are developed on the basis of scientific knowledge. As an alumnus, he has drawn positive attention to Aalto University and underlined the importance of multidisciplinarity, technology skills and entrepreneurship in working life.