Three new Academy Professors at Aalto University

The Research Council of Finland has appointed 15 Academy Professors for a six-year term from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2031. Academy Professors are researchers at the international forefront of their field and whose research strives for scientific renewal and breakthroughs.

Aalto University's new Academy Professors Tuomas Hytönen, Mikko Möttönen and Aki Vehtari are all well-established scientists with decades of experience.  

Tuomas Hytönen brings precision in uncertainty

Tuomas Hytönen is a professor of mathematics. He studies harmonic analysis, a broader mathematical area that has grown from the theory of signal processing. Hytönen's Academy Professorship and the associated research project deal with mathematical operations called commutators.

‘Many important phenomena in pure and applied mathematics arise from the fact that the familiar formula 3 x 5 = 5 x 3, known as the commutation law, no longer holds when ordinary numbers are replaced by more general mathematical entities, such as derivative and integral transformations. This phenomenon forms the basis for, among other things, the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics. According to it, for example, a particle's position and velocity cannot be simultaneously known precisely,’ Hytönen explains.

The goal of the research project is to develop a general theory that can address the magnitude of the error in commutation law and its consequences in various areas of mathematics.

‘An important application goal is to solve the equation describing the compression of matter with very rough initial values. In addition to generating new knowledge, we aim to compile existing fragmented research results in the field into a unified theory,’ says Hytönen.

Mikko Möttönen builds self-operating quantum devices

Mikko Möttönen is a professor of quantum technology whose research interests include superconducting electrical circuits.

‘Currently, we are researching autonomous quantum systems that operate at millikelvin temperatures and figuring out how to build them. Autonomous devices do not need to be controlled externally with, for example, cables that also introduce noise. They can operate faster and more accurately, and they scale in a completely different way,’ Möttönen says. ‘For example, the quantum computer with a thousand logical qubits mentioned in Finland’s quantum strategy has hundreds of thousands of physical qubits. If it were built using today’s technology, the machine would have a million cables, each costing a thousand euros. With autonomous devices, this kind of cabling can be largely eliminated.’

At Aalto University, Möttönen leads the Quantum Computing and Devices research group, whose recent achievements include a transmon qubit with a coherence reaching the millisecond threshold. The group is also building an autonomous quantum heat engine which picks up heat by itself and outputs a coherent wave. Möttönen is also one of the founders of IQM, a company building quantum computers, and QMill, a company that develops quantum algorithms.

Hundreds of research areas use statistical methods developed by Aki Vehtari 

Aki Vehtari is a professor of computer science, who focuses on the development of Bayesian statistical modeling methods. Although Vehtari does not collaborate directly with many applied researchers, his methods are used by thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of researchers. This is because the methods are easy to use, well documented, and Vehtari has also published several books and articles explaining how to utilise them.

‘The use of these methods is uncontrolled in the sense that I don't know where they are being utilised. However, I do get some information from references in scientific articles and software packages. The hundreds of research areas that use these methods are very diverse, ranging from the effects of climate change to infectious diseases, population genetics, and economics. The topics are therefore very relevant and studied phenomena very complex. In my new Academy Professorship, I will be developing methods that allow modeling increasingly complex phenomena. Therefore, I already know that there is a need for this development work, and many interested users.’

For Vehtari, the Academy Professorship means more time to focus on research and writing together with collaborators.