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Awards presented for top doctoral and master’s theses at the School of Science

Doctoral Thesis Award was granted to András Márton Gunyhó, Nikolai Kuznetsov, Heli Julkunen, Kalle Kujanpää, David Wunder, David Adame-Carrillo and Alex Drago González. Master's theses awards were granted to Axel Hedman, Elina Heikkilä, Aapo Kallunki, Olli Latvakoski, Sami Lauronen and Eero Virmavirta.
Sami Lauronen, Axel Hedman, Eero Virmavirta, Olli Latvakoski, Elina Heikkila.jpg
Master's thesis awardees: Sami Lauronen, Axel Hedman, Eero Virmavirta, Olli Latvakoski, Elina Heikkilä. Image: Aalto university

In 2025, there were altogether 71 doctoral and 607 master's degrees in the School of Science. In March, seven outstanding doctoral and six master's theses were awarded.

Master's thesis awards

Axel Hedman: Temporal Bipartite Graph Neural Networks for Cardiovascular Risk Prediction from Finnish Registry Data
Supervisor: Samuel Kaski

Elina Heikkilä: Development and Experimental Validation of Computational Tools for DNA Nanostructure Design
Supervisor: Anton Kuzyk

Aapo Kallunki: Transforming Early-Stage Innovation with Generative AI: Case Study of Leveraging LLM Agents for Ideation and Screening
Supervisor: Jukka Luoma

Olli Latvakoski: Designing an AI-driven management system for strategy implementation
Supervisor: Markku Maula

Sami Lauronen: Optimizing the Normal Distributions Transform Update Algorithm
Supervisor: Jukka Suomela

Eero Virmavirta: Optimizing application placement in private cloud environment under capacity constraints
Supervisor: Ahti Salo

Doctoral thesis awards

András Márton Gunyhó (Department of Applied Physics)
Thermal detectors for superconducting quantum computers
Supervising Professor: Mikko Möttönen
Thesis advisor: Dr. Suman Kundu, PHYS

Nikolai Kuznetsov (Department of Applied Physics)
Optical control of spin waves in hybrid magnonic-plasmonic structures
Supervising Professor: Sebastiaan van Dijken
Thesis advisor: Professor Huajun Qin, Wuhan University, China

Heli Julkunen (Department of Computer Science)
Machine Learning for Precision Medicine
Supervising Professor & Thesis advisor: Juho Rousu

Kalle Kujanpää (Department of Computer Science)
Hierarchies, search, and generative models in sequential decision-making
Supervising Professor: Pekka Marttinen
Thesis advisor: Associate Professor Joni Pajarinen, ELEC & Dr. Alexander Ilin, System 2 AI

David Wunder (Department of Industrial Engineering and Management)
The role of venture capital in technology ventures’ sustainability and internationalization
Supervising Professor & Thesis advisor: Markku Maula

David Adame-Carrillo (Department of Mathematics and Systems Analysis)
Lattice models and conformal field theory
Supervising Professor & Thesis advisor:Associate Professor Kalle Kytölä

Alex Drago González (Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering)
Dynamic interactions between ultrasound and water-repellent surfaces
Supervising Professor:Assistant Professor Heikki Nieminen
Co-supervisor:Professor Robin Ras
Thesis advisors: Postdoctoral Researcher Maxime Fauconnier, NBE & Academy Postdoctoral Researcher William Wong, PHYS

Nikolai Kuznetsov, David Wunder, David Adame-Carrillo
From left: Nikolai Kuznetsov, David Wunder and David Adame-Carrillo. Image: Aalto University
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