CV & research

2026–present

Director, Centre of Excellence in Neutron-Star Physics (since January 2026)

2025–present

Theory Programme Director, Helsinki Institute of Physics (since January 2025)

2021–present

Full Professor, University of Helsinki, Department of Physics (since September 2021)

• Helsinki Institute of Physics

  • Theory project leader, 1/2014–12/2022

• University of Helsinki, Department of Physics

  • Associate professor, 9/2017–8/2021

  • Academy research fellow, 9/2013–8/2018

• Bielefeld University, Faculty of Physics

  • Sofja Kovalevskaja group leader, 12/2008–8/2013

• CERN, Theory Division

  • Senior fellow, 1/2008–10/2009

• Technical University of Vienna, Institute of Theoretical Physics

  • Lise Meitner fellow, 7/2007–12/2007

• University of Washington, Department of Physics

  • Research associate, 9/2004–6/2007

• University of Helsinki, Department of Physical Sciences

  • Undergraduate research assistant, PhD student and researcher, 6/2000–8/2004

March 2009

Habilitation (title of docent), University of Helsinki

January 2004

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Helsinki

November 2001

Master of Science, University of Helsinki

June 1998

High school diploma, Helsingin Normaalilyseo

• Member, Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 2020–present

• ERC Advanced grant, 2026

• Magnus Ehrnrooth foundation award, Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, 2022

• ERC Consolidator grant, 2016

• Sofja Kovalevskaja award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, 2008

• PhD thesis award, Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 2004

• MSc thesis award, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, 2001

• Altogether 18 past and current PhD students as primary or joint primary supervisor:

  1. Olavi Kiuru, 3/2025–present (co-supervised with J. Nättilä and R. Paatelainen)

  2. Leon Sandbote, 1/2025–present (co-supervised with R. Paatelainen)

  3. Sofia Blomqvist, 7/2024–present (co-supervised with Joonas Nättilä)

  4. Tomi Ruosteoja, 7/2024–present (co-supervised with R. Paatelainen)

  5. Aapeli Kärkkäinen, 3/2024–present (co-supervised with R. Paatelainen)

  6. Pablo Navarrete, 5/2023–present (co-supervised with R. Paatelainen)

  7. Mika Nurmela, 10/2022–present (co-supervised with R. Paatelainen)

  8. Kaapo Seppänen, 11/2021–9/2025 (co-supervised with R. Paatelainen)

  9. Juuso Österman, 1/2020–3/2025 (co-supervised with Risto Paatelainen)

  10. Joonas Hirvonen, 9/2020–8/2024 (co-supervised with Oliver Gould)

  11. Jere Remes, 9/2015–12/2020 (co-supervised with N. Jokela and Kimmo Tuominen)

  12. Eemeli Annala, 9/2016–11/2020 (co-supervised with A. Kurkela)

  13. Saga Säppi, 1/2017–9/2020 (co-supervised with Aleksi Kurkela)

  14. Arttu Pönni, 12/2014–12/2019 (co-supervised with Niko Jokela)

  15. Tuomas Tenkanen, 9/2014–5/2018 (co-supervised with David Weir)

  16. Sylvain Mogliacci, 9/2010–6/2014

  17. Martin Krssak, 6/2010–8/2013

  18. Yan Zhu, 9/2010–8/2013

• 23 BSc and 22 MSc theses, 2011–present

• Altogether 24 past or current postdoctoral fellows:

  • Primary supervisor of altogether 9 postdocs at Bielefeld University, 2009–2013, and so far 15 at the University of Helsinki, 2013–present

  • Five former postdocs have since obtained permanent faculty positions

• Chair or member of the grading committee in 18 PhD defenses, 2017–present (Helsinki, Uppsala)

• Opponent in 4 PhD defenses, 2011–present (Frankfurt, Helsinki, Southampton, TU Vienna)

• Pre-examiner of 11 PhD theses, 2006–present (Cantabria, Helsinki, Jyväskylä)

• Member of eXTP Working Group 1 (Ultradense matter), 2025–present

• International Advisory Committee member in conference series Extreme QCD, 2015–present, and Strong and Electroweak Matter, 2023–present

• Participant in Forum for Future Leadership, University of Helsinki, 2021–2024

• Associate Editor for European Physical Journal C, 2020–2023

• Regular invited presentations at major international conferences and seminar series

  • Recent plenaries at Strong and Electroweak Matter; Extreme QCD (multiple times); Quark Matter; INTEGRAL; Holography and Dense Matter (multiple times)

  • Recent colloquia and seminars at Harvard University; Goethe University Frankfurt; University of Amsterdam; KITP, Santa Barbara; APC, Paris; TU Vienna

• Active reviewer for multiple journals, including Nature, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review X, Physical Review D, Journal of High Energy Physics, European Physical Journal, Nuclear Physics B, Physics Letters

• Grant reviewer for many organizations, including European Research Council (ERC); German Research Foundation (DFG) and Alexander von Humboldt foundation, Germany; Department of Energy, USA; Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Belgium; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; UK Research and Innovation Services ; Croatian Science Foundation

• Chair or member of committees responsible for filling permanent positions at multiple universities, including Norwegian University for Science and Technology; University of Barcelona, Spain; Universities of Helsinki and Jyväskylä, Finland

• Member of University Collegium, University of Helsinki, 2026–present

• Member of Steering Group, Helsinki Institute of Physics, 2025–present

• Steering board member of Master’s Programme in Particle Physics and Astrophysical Sciences, University of Helsinki, 2021–2024

• Member of the Wellbeing and Equality Monitoring Group of the Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, 2017–2022

• Member of the Management Committees of the COST actions NewCompStar, 2013–2017 and PHAROS, 2017–2021

• Study planning contact person for physics BSc students, Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, 2017–2020

• Board member of Particle Physics Division of the Finnish Physical Society, 2017–2019

• Vice member of the Management Committee of the COST action FUNDAMENTALCONNECTIONS, 2015–2019

• Member of Organizing Committee, Strong and Electroweak Matter 2026, Helsinki, Finland

• One of two main organizers of Kickoff Meeting of the Centre of Excellence in Neutron-Star Physics, Helsinki, Finland, 2026

• One of two main organizers of workshop From holography to machine learning: novel takes on dense matter, Helsinki, Finland, 2022

• Convener of Deconfinement section, Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum conference series, 2015–2022

• Member of Scientific Committee for Finnish Physics Days, 2019

• Main organizer of workshop Fire and Ice: Hot QCD meets cold and dense matter, Saariselkä, Finland, 2018

• Organizer of Finnish Particle Physics Day 2017, Helsinki, Finland, 2017

• Organizer and lecturer, Particle Physics school, University of Helsinki, Finland, 2017

• Convener of the Quantum field and string theory session, EPS-HEP 2017, Venice, Italy

• Organizer of a CERN TH Institute on neutron star physics, CERN, Switzerland, 2016

• Organizer of an Institute for Nuclear Theory program on thermalization in gauge field theories, INT, Seattle, 2015

• Convener and member of International Program Committee for the conference Heavy ion collisions in the LHC era and beyond, Quy Nhon, Vietnam, 2015

• Organizer of a HoloGrav network workshop, University of Helsinki, 2013

• Organizer of summer school Aspects of QCD at Finite Density, Bielefeld University, 2011

• Organizer of seminar series at the Univ. of Washington (2005–2007) and CERN (2009)

• Approximately 40 lectures for Finnish high school students and teachers visiting CERN and the University of Helsinki, 2008–present.
• Regular invited public talks on topics in high-energy physics, 2008–present.
• Regular media appearances in podcasts, newspapers and popular science magazines.
• Regular expert contributions to the “Ask a researcher” columns in Tähdet ja Avaruus and Helsingin Sanomat.

For selected recent activities, see Teaching & outreach; for interviews and coverage, see Media & interviews.