Tenured Professors’ Installation Talks

Simo Hostikka (born 1971, Finland) started as a fire researcher in 1997 at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, where his research focused on the methods of deterministic and probabilistic fire simulation.

During the years 2000–2001 and in the spring of 2003, he worked as a guest researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States. Hostikka received his doctorate in theoretical and applied mechanics from Helsinki University of Technology in 2008.

In VTT he developed several simulators and assessment methods. He was one of the principal developers of Fire Dynamics Simulator -software, the most widely used simulation tool in the field of fire dynamics. During 2011 and 2013 Hostikka held the position of Principal Scientist.

In 2013 Hostikka was appointed as Associate Professor at the Aalto University School of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, for the five-year period of 13.1.2014–12.1.2019. The field his professorship was fire safety engineering. He is Programme Director of the Master’s Programme in Building Technology.

During his career he has received numerous awards in the field of fire engineering, such as the Sjölin Award, an international award granted for contributions in the field of fire safety.

Simo Hostikka, D.Sc., has been appointed Professor of fire safety engineering at the Aalto University School of Engineering on 29 August 2018.

Karin Krokfors (born 1960 in Finland)completed her doctoral studies in the Department of Architecture at Aalto University in 2017. Her doctoral thesis Time for Space – Typologically Flexible and Resilient Buildings and the Emergence of the Creative Dweller (2017) explores how urban environments and buildings can be understood and developed from more resilient starting points focusing on their spatial contexts.

Krokfors studied as an affiliate PhD in the Faculty of Built Environment, The Bartlett at the University College London in 2008 and 2009. She has taught Housing and Urban Design at the Helsinki University of Technology and at Aalto University, and has been a guest lecturer and critic in several schools of architecture in Finland, Sweden, the US and the UK.

She has run her own architectural practice, Karin Krokfors Architects, in Helsinki since 1995. Krokfors has been awarded prizes in architectural and urban design competitions in Finland, France, Japan and Sweden. In her practice she has also been an active instigator and principal designer for several developmental housing projects.

Karin Krokfors, D.Sc. (Arch.), has been appointed Professor of Urban Design Practices at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture on 13 September 2018.

Harri Laakso (born 1965 in Finland) studied photography, visual arts and art theory in New York and Helsinki and obtained his Doctor of Arts degree in photography from University of Art and Design Helsinki (UIAH) in 2003. During his doctoral studies, Laakso spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Laakso worked as Regional Artist of Photography for the Arts Council of Pirkanmaa before holding a Postdoctoral Research position at UIAH from 2004 to 2006. From 2006 until 2018 he held several consecutive appointments as Professor of Visual Culture and Art at UIAH and Aalto University. From 2016–2018, he led the University-Wide Art Studies initiative at Aalto.

Laakso's primary research interests are photographic images and theory, artistic research and word/image relations. He has led many research projects, being the principal investigator of the Academy of Finland funded project “Figures of Touch” (2009–2012). In addition to his own art projects and publications, he has curated many exhibitions including the Falling Trees exhibitions in the Finnish and Nordic Pavillions at the Venice Biennale in 2013. Laakso is presently also chair of the Board for Public Display Grants to Visual Artists, Arts Promotion Center Finland (2019–2021). He works mainly in the Department of Media but also in the Department of Art and the Department of Film, Television and Scenography.

Harri Laakso, DA, has been appointed Professor of photography research at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture on 27 August 2018.

Miina Rautiainen (born 1980, Finland) received her D.Sc. (Agriculture and Forestry) degree in forest sciences from Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, Finland, in 2005. She is the youngest doctoral graduate in forest sciences in Finland.

Prior to joining Aalto in 2015, she worked as Academy postdoctoral researcher (2007–2009) and Academy Research Fellow (2010–2015) in University of Helsinki, and as visiting scholar in Boston University, Tartu Observatory, University of Adelaide, University of Zurich and Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Her research team focuses on quantifying and modeling the structural and spectral properties of forest vegetation, and applications of this information in, for example, understanding the role of forests in climate change.

Her work has been recognized by, for example, an award for a promising young scientist from the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. Currently, she is a European Research Council Consolidator Grant awardee (2018–2023), principal investigator in a project funded by the Academy of Finland (2015–2019), and chair of the Finnish Society for Forest Science.

Miina Rautiainen, D.Sc. (Agriculture and Forestry), has been appointed Professor of remote sensing at the Aalto University School of Engineering and School of Electrical Engineering on 29 August 2018.