Professor Sarah Butcher, Vice-Dean for Research – also Deputy to the dean, and responsible for facilities (from July 2025), infrastructure, innovation, international affairs
Can you tell us a bit about your professional background and key experiences that have prepared you for this role?
I trained as an Applied Biologist in the University of Bath, UK, subsequently working on vaccine production for meningitis at the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki, before moving to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg to work on enveloped virus structures for my PhD. In 1996, I moved to the MRC Virology Unit in Glasgow to establish a cryoEM unit there and to work on human cytomegalovirus, before returning to Helsinki to take up a postdoctoral position in the University of Helsinki, establishing my own research group in 2001, and became a professor in 2008. Our funding comes from many national and international sources, including the EU framework programmes.
I have also been reviewing extensively for international funders including ERC and EMBO. My research leadership roles within the University include heading the Institute of Biotechnology’s Structural Biology and Biophysics Programme for 4 years from 2014 and leading the Division of General Microbiology in the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences from 2016, until the restructuring of the Faculty when I became the vice leader of the Molecular and Integrative Biosciences Research Programme. I established cryogenic electron microscopy in Finland in 2000 and ran the national cryoEM facility until early this year. Finland joined the Instruct ERIC ESFRI in 2019 and I have led the Instruct Centre in Finland since then, coordinating the national integrated structural biology infrastructure (FINStruct) and its role on the Finnish Roadmap, and currently chairing the Instruct ERIC Council that has representatives from 17 member countries and organisations. Together these key experiences, many accumulated within the University of Helsinki, have helped me to prepare for my new roles as Vice-Dean for Facilities, Research, Infrastructure, Internationalisation.
What attracted you to this specific leadership position?
Our Faculty is research intensive, and the people that do the research are very talented, and motivated. This position allows the promotion of that talent, and the joy of discovery. Although infrastructure and facilities may not seem to be alluring leadership positions to some, I have been involved in heavily utilising, and running research infrastructures at local, national and international levels. I have also been involved in their management, guidance and assessment, within the University including as a committee member of the Life Science Research Infrastructure Committee, Board member of Biocentrum Helsinki, Vice Board member of Biocenter Finland, and the advisory committee of the Life Science Data Competence Center. As a successfully assimilated British Finn, with extensive international networks, issues of internationalisation and equality are very close to my heart.
What are your top priorities and goals for the first 100 days in your new role?
The main priority now is the Research Assessment of the University of Helsinki, preparing the Faculty’s self-assessment and encouraging the community to comment on that. Next is preparing an infrastructure strategy for the Faculty, and getting to know the new teams that I will be contributing to.
How do you plan to drive innovation within the faculty?
I aim to do that through consultation, planning and data-based ground work.
Can you share a piece of advice that has been particularly valuable to you in your career?
Don’t be afraid to ask.
How do you spend your free time?
I enjoy time with my family and friends, hiking, sport, boating, theatre, opera, reading, dancing, board games, cooking, foraging, and gardening. Some of these hobbies fulfil my competitive streak, many of them help me to relax.
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Professor Jussi Eronen, Vice-Dean for Public Engagement – Responsible for public engagement, sustainability, wellbeing, donations, fundraising and internal communications
Can you tell us a bit about your professional background and key experiences that have prepared you for this role?
My background is in the natural sciences. I started my career examining the past at the University of Helsinki’s Department of Geosciences and Geography. Throughout my career, however, I’ve been very much involved in life sciences research.
For the past 15 years, I’ve been actively influencing decision-making and trying to ensure research knowledge is better integrated into associated processes. As early as 2013 I was part of a core group writing a scientific consensus statement on maintaining humanity’s life support systems in the 21st century. This statement focused on global environmental problems and what people must do to ensure the health of the planet. The statement was drawn up at the request of then-Governor of California Jerry Brown after he had heard of a paper in Nature predicting the biological effects of a global-scale state shift (Barnosky et al 2012: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11018). Brown wished to use the statement to effectively shape environmental policy – a goal that has been achieved. Translated into multiple languages, the statement has reached policymakers across the globe. Following the lessons learned from the writing process, I was involved in establishing the BIOS Research Unit with six other researchers in 2015.
Since 2014 I’ve been working widely with journalists and science communicators and teaching environmental issues to journalism students at institutions such as Tampere University. As a result, I’ve developed extensive contacts with many environmental journalists and writers in newspapers, magazines, blogs, NGOs, commercial media and the Yle public service media company. One example is a joint project with Yle in 2015 and 2016 to enhance environmental journalism and collaboration between researchers and journalists. With BIOS, I’ve produced audiovisual material and events to engage with the public and connect research with policy-making. This way I’ve met a wide group of decision-makers and stakeholder representatives. After returning to the University, I carried those lessons into my professorship at the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences.
What attracted you to this specific leadership position?
As mentioned, I’ve actively engaged with the public in recent years, and much of my current research focuses on how knowledge is produced, how research interacts with decision-making, and how societies function during environmental and climate crises. A major research interest of mine is how societies withstand multiple crises, alongside patterns of long-term natural resource use. Public engagement aligns well with this research focus, and I hope to continue developing and deepening my work through my new role.
What are your top priorities and goals for the first 100 days in your new role?
I wish to keep ethical guidelines at the forefront throughout the Faculty and ensure that webinars and other regular activities continue to thrive as they have in recent years under the previous vice-dean for public engagement. With the University preparing a fundraising campaign, I will work to integrate the Faculty’s perspectives into it as effectively as possible. Other priorities this spring include analysing the wellbeing survey results and acting on them, as well as sustaining the Faculty’s fundraising efforts for professorships.
In addition, my goal is to review research groups from a communications perspective, identifying potential experts and groups and collaboratively helping them increase their media presence and influence in decision-making. I’m of course working to get up to speed across all areas, especially with the steady stream of new developments. I anticipate it will take me through spring and autumn to get everything fully under control. By the end of the year, I expect to have a clearer vision of how I’d like to develop the areas under my responsibility with the dean and other vice-deans.
How do you spend your free time?
I’m an old boardgame and tabletop role-playing game enthusiast. I read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi literature and envision alternative realities. This feeds into my research as well, especially when exploring utopian and dystopian frameworks. I’m pretty active on social media, particularly on Bluesky, where the line between work and leisure can be hazy. I visit many art and museum exhibitions, and on weekends I like to unwind in nature and spend time away from Helsinki. Physical activity and staying fit are essential in a demanding role like mine, so I make time for different forms of exercise as well as for downtime – whether through games, books or time with family and friends.
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Professor Ville Hietakangas, Vice-Dean for Doctoral Education – Responsible for doctoral education, knowledge management, and research–teaching coordination with Sarah Butcher and Johanna Mappes
Can you tell us a bit about your professional background and key experiences that have prepared you for this role?
I’m currently professor of gene regulation, having previously been deputy director of a research programme, steering group member of a master’s programme and director of a doctoral programme. These experiences have given me a solid grounding in the practical aspects of my role as vice-dean.
My academic journey began at the University of Turku, where I studied biochemistry and completed my doctoral thesis in gene regulation. I then spent a four-year postdoctoral period abroad: two years in Germany at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and, after my research group relocated, another two years in Singapore. Working overseas in a top-tier international research environment gave me firsthand insight into what’s required from both an individual researcher and the research environment to produce world-class research. I believe I can draw from these experiences as a vice-dean too.
Having returned to Finland, I established my own research group as an Academy Research Fellow at the Institute of Biotechnology in 2009. When the professorial tenure track was introduced at the University of Helsinki a few years later, I was fortunate enough to secure a position the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences opened in my field. The early years of my career as an independent researcher taught me how important it is that the research environment supports the researcher’s independence in the long term and offers career paths. Starting a research group comes with significant challenges, and as happened in my case, much depends on chance. As vice-dean, I wish to advocate for decisions that improve junior researchers’ career prospects, making research an appealing career choice for them.
With the progression of my research career to a professorship, the nature and demands of my work have shifted. While I’ve been presented with many exciting opportunities and new responsibilities, the fragmentation of my work often leaves me feeling there’s no time to do anything properly. The constant back-and-forth of emails and drawn-out meetings require time and attention. One of my goals as vice-dean is to work with the dean and other vice-deans in clarifying and simplifying the job descriptions of Faculty staff to make their work as productive as possible and improve workplace wellbeing.
What attracted you to this specific leadership position?
A well-functioning society is built on science and research-driven education, alongside the opportunity to apply one’s expertise as broadly as possible. Our Faculty’s disciplines are associated with human wellbeing and the health of the environment. For these important societal issues to progress, it’s essential that education, research and expertise are held to the highest standards, with skilled professionals recruited from around the world. While work performance depends largely on the skills of individual employees, the work environment too must foster high quality. I was drawn to the vice-dean position by the chance to contribute to the broader development of our field, in addition to my ongoing work in research and education.
What are your top priorities and goals for the first 100 days in your new role?
I’m hitting the ground running. With the doctoral programme reform already in full swing, I’ll have to make decisions with lasting consequences within my first few weeks as vice-dean. My key goals for the first 100 days are to develop a well-functioning framework for doctoral education in our Faculty’s research fields and to incorporate both doctoral researchers and their supervisors in the process, despite the concerns the reform may raise. Another objective for me is that even when structures change, good core elements remain intact. Reforms are always an opportunity to make positive changes. The list of core development goals will certainly include enhancing and consolidating the application and doctoral defence processes, improving supervision and support for doctoral researchers, collaborating across disciplines and units, and clarifying postdoctoral career prospects. That said, I can’t accomplish any of this by myself, since high-quality doctoral education is built on the collective efforts and skills of the academic community and doctoral researchers.
Another priority for me is to enhance the smooth and effective running of key Faculty operations, while improving workplace wellbeing. How do we increase teaching efficiency without compromising quality? What steps should we take to prepare for growing student numbers, and how do we identify the right course coordinators and teachers? And how can we distribute the teaching workload fairly while considering other duties and responsibilities? Although many of these elements are already working well at the Faculty, there is certainly room for further enhancement. The Faculty’s organisational structure requires effective coordination between degree and research programmes. I’ll start by consulting programme directors on their experiences and views so we can together identify flexible and effective solutions. I encourage Faculty staff too to consider how to improve the efficiency of their own work and to contact me without hesitation with any constructive proposals.
Can you share a piece of advice that has been particularly valuable to you in your career?
You must have the courage to make tough decisions and bear their consequences. You don’t always get it right, but you can learn from your mistakes. It’s good to discuss difficult matters with multiple people.
How do you spend your free time?
Outside of work, I spend time with my family, frequently in Helsinki’s green spaces. Cross-country skiing and cycling are also part of my routine, as exercise clears my mind and energises me.
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Professor Johanna Mappes, Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs
Can you tell us a bit about your professional background and key experiences that have prepared you for this role?
I was appointed in 2020 as the University of Helsinki’s professor of ecology, with a focus on evolutionary ecology. I’d previously worked many years at the University of Jyväskylä in roles including that of department director (departments correspond to degree and research programmes here). I’ve made longer research visits to universities in Stockholm, California (Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz) and Canberra as well as to the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study. I’ve worked two terms as an Academy Professor and led the Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions. In other words, I have a fairly research-oriented background with some experience in academic leadership, particularly in the field of research. With this background, I’m excited to embrace the challenge of serving as vice-dean for academic affairs. I’m still passionate about research and hope to find time for it too. Although teaching and research are often seen as competing for time, both of them are our core duties. Quality research is the foundation of quality teaching. Finding a balance between the two for all research and teaching staff is one of the key challenges in my new role.
What attracted you to this specific leadership position?
We educate future decision-makers and experts in a field dedicated to addressing enormous challenges to our planet’s viability. Can anything else at the University be more important? At the same time, we’re grappling with urgent challenges in teaching, and struggling with dwindling core funding while student numbers increase. Our shared commitment, however, is to avoid compromise on teaching quality. It’s clear we must adjust some of our work approaches. In terms of research, our Faculty is highly ambitious. We wish to not only maintain our current standards but also raise them further. Our staff must be allowed to divide their hours so that they have a genuine chance to work and concentrate on both core duties. Though this is a challenge, I choose to see it as an opportunity to elevate the value placed on teaching.
What are your top priorities and goals for the first 100 days in your new role?
My first duty is to support our new dean in his role. I’m focused on gathering information, gaining a deeper understanding of the work of lecturers and programme directors, and engaging directly and broadly with staff on the ground by talking and listening to them. Our programmes are extensive, and many teaching programmes include courses and collaboration with several faculties. Seeing the big picture is a substantial challenge. Addressing unfinished matters, such as the curriculum, is definitely among my highest priorities, alongside completing the new teaching programmes. Other top priorities include enhancing thesis supervision and finding tangible ways to support students along their study paths.
How do you plan to drive development in teaching within the faculty?
It requires collaboration, appreciation for others’ work and active listening. We’ll undoubtedly face unpleasant decisions and projects that provoke opposition and ill feeling. The keys to successful collaboration are open communication, transparency and the ability to explain the rationale behind decisions. Our staff are highly skilled and motivated. It’s my job to make sure everything runs smoothly by ‘staying out of the way’ and acting as a filter, so teaching staff can focus on doing meaningful work effectively.
Can you share a piece of advice that has been particularly valuable to you in your career?
Follow your passion, be humble (ready to admit to and learn from mistakes) yet ambitious, and trust your intuition. Never lose your sense of wonder for the marvels of life. Don’t shy away from challenges and opportunities. Don’t let criticism get you down (it’s a constant in academia), but embrace it if it offers useful insights. And if not, ignore it and let it go. Try to find a mentor or colleague to trust and rely on in challenging situations. Be respectful and kind to all.
How do you spend your free time?
Whenever I can, I spend time with my family, particularly my grandchildren. I’m a culture vulture, enjoying concerts, art exhibitions and plays, and reading a lot of fiction. I stay up to date with global events and public conversations, and thrive on passionate debates as long as the tone remains respectful. Every spring, I turn into an amateur ornithologist and track the migration of birds. In the summer, I make it a point to do fieldwork, even briefly, as part of my research group’s project on butterfly diversity and signalling.
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Professor Juha Voipio, Vice-Dean for Facilities – Responsible for facilities and effective leadership transition from 1 April to 30 June 2025.
My term as vice-dean will last under 100 days before my official retirement.
Can you tell us a bit about your professional background and key experiences that have prepared you for this role?
I’m a physicist by training, having completed my undergraduate and doctoral degrees at the Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University) in technical physics. I nearly went into industry, but once I had the chance to explore neurobiology, it won me over. Now, I feel equally like a physicist and a neurobiologist. Throughout the decades, my research has centred on the mechanisms and importance of ion regulation in neurons and neuronal networks, spanning basic research, clinical applications and methodological advancements, often in fruitful collaboration with Kai Kaila. I’m pleased to teach physiology and neurobiology from a physics standpoint, which I believe is an excellent approach for research too – I highly recommend it! I’ve been a professor at the Faculty since 2003, was a vice-dean for academic affairs for one term years ago, headed a master’s programme and, most recently, served as dean for a year.
What are your top priorities and goals for the first 100 days in your new role?
As vice-dean, my primary responsibility is to support the new dean and other vice-deans as they settle into their work and to complete the Faculty’s ongoing facilities project. I have only a few months to accomplish this, after which I will retire and focus on completing the research projects that I’ve yet to finish.
How do you spend your free time?
I spend my free time with my family. Classical music, particularly opera, is close to my heart, but I also take great pleasure in renovating my inherited summer cottage.