Top research

The success of the University of Helsinki among international universities is largely due to the cutting-edge research within the natural sciences. The research groups of the Faculty of Science have been successful in applications for external funding both nationally and internationally.

As an indicator of our high quality research, the research groups of the Faculty of Science have been successful in applications for external funding, such as academy professorships and Centre of Excellence funding, as well as funding from the European Union. These forms of research funding are very competitive and the standard of the science high. The strong increase in external funding has added to the width and depth of scientific research at the University of Helsinki.

The departments of the faculty are part of two Centres of Excellence funded by Academy of Finland. Three academy professors appointed by the Academy of Finland work at the faculty. Currently twelve of the researchers at the faculty’s departments receive competitive funding from ERC.
Flagships

The Faculty of Science is involved in four flagship projects of the Academy of Finland: and , as well as the flagships of and the , which was launched in autumn 2023. The flagships science cooperates with businesses and the society at large. For more information about the flagships, please visit the University's Strategic Research website.

 
Profile building areas

The University of Helsinki strengthens its research profile in strategically selected areas with competitive funding for profiling. A profile building area can be a field of research or a thematic research module. The area must be a carefully chosen, strategic part of the research at the university. Faculty of Science is an active participant in several profile building areas.

 
Other top researchers of the Faculty of Science

The board of the  appoints the Academy Professors. Academy Professors are nationally and internationally renown researchers with proven academic skills and the ability to further the research in their own field. The Academy Professor is the highest research post of the Academy of Finland.

The Academy currently provides funding for 25 five-year Academy Professorships, of which about half work at the University of Helsinki. Three Academy professors work at the Faculty of Science:

Academy pro­fess­ors at the Fac­ulty of science

Earlier ap­point­ments

  • Markku Kulmala 1.1.2017 - 31.12.2021
  • Antti Kupiainen 01.08.1999 - 31.07.2004
  • Esko Ukkonen 01.08.1999 - 31.07.2004
  • Markku Kulmala 01.08.2004 - 31.07.2009
  • Antti Kupiainen 01.08.2004 - 31.07.2009
  • Markku Leskelä 01.08.2004 - 31.07.2009
  • Kari Astala 01.08.2006 - 31.07.2011
  • Kari Enqvist 01.01.2010 - 31.12.2014
  • Markku Kulmala 01.01.2011 - 31.12.2015
  • Antti Kupiainen 1.1.2013 - 31.12.2017
  • Matti Lassas 1.1.2014 - 31.12.2018
  • Timo Vesala 1.1.2015 - 31.12.2019

The departments of the Faculty of Science participate in several Centres of Excellence appointed by the .

Centres of Excellence 2022–2029:

  • Eero Saksman:
  • Hanna Vehkamäki:
  • Ville Mustonen: (coordinator: Faculty of agriculture and forestry)
  • Ilpo Vattulainen: (coordinator: University of Turku)

Centres of Ex­cel­lence 2018–2025

  • (coordinator: Aalto university)

Centres of Excellence 2014–2019

  • Centre of Excellence in Analysis and Dynamics Research
  • Centre of Excellence in Atmospheric Science – From Molecular and Biological Processes to the Global Climate
  • Centre of Excellence in Biomembrane Research: From Lipid-Protein Interactions to Functions (coordinated by the Faculty of Medicine)
  • Centre of Excellence in Research on the Relational and Territorial Politics of Bordering, Identities and Transnationalisation (coordinated by University of Oulu)

Centres of Excellence 2012–2017

  • Centre of Exellence in Atomic Layer Deposition
  • Centre of Exellence in Inverse Problems Research
  • Centre of Excellence in Cancer Genetics Research (coordinated by the Faculty of Medicine)
  • Centre of Excellence in Computational Inference Research (coordinated by Aalto University)

Centres of Excellence 2008–2013

  • Centre of Excellence in Algorithmic Data Analysis Research
  • Centre of Excellence in Analysis and Dynamics Research
  • Centre of Excellence in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Meteorology of Atmospheric Composition and Climate Change
  • Centre of Excellence in Functional Materials (coordinated by Åbo Akademi University)

Centres of Excellence 2006–2011

  • Centre of Excellence in Computational Molecular Science
  • Centre of Excellence in Inverse Problems

The following researchers at the Faculty of Science have received funding from the (ERC):

Advanced Grant:

  • Professor , Helsinki Institute of Physics HIP: Computational Cosmology and Gravitational Waves (CoCoS), 1.9.2024–31.8.2029.
  • Academy professor , Department of mathematics and statistics: Geometric Methods in Inverse Problems for Partial Differential Equations (PDE-INVERSE, 1.11.2023–31.10.2028)
  • Research Director , Department of mathematics and statistics: Team semantics and dependence logic, (TEAMDEP, 1.6.2021–31.5.2026)

Consolidator Grant:

  • Professor , Department of Computer Science: Scalable Graph Algorithms for Bioinformatics using Structure, Parameterization and Dynamic Updates (SCALEBIO, 1.9.2025 – 31.8.2030)
  • Associate professor Christian Webb, Department of mathematics and statistics: Conformally invariant and near critical models in statistical field theory (CONFSTAT, 1.6.2025 - 31.5.2030)
  • Associate professor , Department of mathematics and statistics and Organismal and evolutionary biology research programme (Faculty of biological and environmental sciences): Predictive Understanding of the effects of Global Change on Ecological Communities and Ecosystem Functions, (BEFPREDICT, 1.5.2024 - 30.4.2029)
  • Academy Research Fellow Lucile Turc, Department of physics: Impact of foreshock transients on near-Earth space (WAVESTORMS, 1.9.2024 - 31.8.2029)
  • Professor , Department of mathematics and statistics: Lorentzian Calderon problem: visibility and invisibility (LoCal, 1.8.2023 - 31.7.2028)
  • Professor , Department of geosciences and geography: Greener urban travel for everyone: From measured wellbeing impacts to Big Data analytics (GREENTRAVEL, 1.1.2003 - 31.12.2027)
  • Professor , Helsinki Institute of Physics HIP: Jet Energy Corrections for High-Luminosity LHC (JEC4HL-LHC, 1.9.2022 - 31.8.2027)

Starting Grant:

  • Associate professor , Department of physics: Illuminating neutron stars with radiative plasma physics (ILLUMINATOR, 1.5.2024 - 30.4.2029)

     

Completed ERC-projects:

Advanced Grant:

  • Research Director , Department of mathematics and statistics: Quasiconformal Methods in Analysis and Applications (QUAMAP, 1.9.2019–31.8.2025)
  • Professor , Department of Mathematics and Statistics: Quantum Fields and Probability (QFPROBA, 1.10.2017 - 31.3.2024)
  • Professor , Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR): Atmospheric Gas-to-Particle conversion (ATM-GTP, 1.6.2017 - 31.5.2022)
  • Professor , Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR): Simulating Non-Equilibrium Dynamics of Atmospheric Multicomponent Clusters (DAMOCLES, 1.6.2016 - 31.5.2021)
  • Professor , Department of Physics: Atmospheric nucleation: from molecular to global scale (ATMNUCLE, 1.1.2009 - 31.12.2013)
  • Professor , Department of Mathematics and Statistics: Mathematical Physics of Out-of-Equilibrium Systems (MPOES, 1.3.2009 – 28.2.2014)
  • Professor , Department of Physics: Scattering and absorption of electromagnetic waves in particulate media (, 1.4.2013 - 31.3.2018)

Consolidator Grant:

  • Professor , Department of Chemistry: Artificial Enzyme Modules as Tools in a Tailor-made Biosynthesis (ABIONYS, 1.11.2020-31.10.2025)
  • Professor , Department of Physics: Post-Newtonian modelling of the dynamics of supermassive black holes in galactic-scale hydrodynamical simulations, (KETJU, 1.7.2019 – 30.9.2025)
  • Professor , Department of Mathematics and Statistics: Quantitative stochastic homogenization of variational problems, (QSHvar, 1.8.2019 - 31.7.2024)
  • Professor , Department of Physics: Plasma Reconnection, Shocks and Turbulence in Solar System Interactions: Modelling and Observations (PRESTISSIMO, 1.6.2016 - 31.5.2022)
  • Associate Professor , Department of Physics: High-density QCD matter from first principles (DenseMatter, 1.7.2017 - 31.12.2022)
  • Associate Professor , Department of Physics: Unravelling The Structure and Evolution of Solar Magnetic Flux Ropes and Their Magnetosheaths (SolMAG, 1.6.2017 - 31.5.2023)

Starting Grant:

  • Assistant Professor , Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR): Chasing pre-industrial aerosols (CHAPAs, 1.1.2020 – 31.12.2024)
  • Academy Research Fellow , Department of Computer Science: Safe and Complete Algorithms for Bioinformatics (SAFEBIO, 1.3.2020 – 28.2.2025)
  • University Researcher , Department of Geosciences and Geography: Quantifying the global patterns and trends of the illegal wildlife trade: from artificial intelligence to financial market analysis, (WILDTRADE, 1.6.2019 - 31.5.2024)
  • Associate Professor , Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR): Molecular steps of gas-to-particle conversion: From oxidation to precursors, clusters and secondary aerosol particles (GASPARCON, 1.2.2017 - 31.1.2022)
  • Professor , Department of Mathematics and Statistics : Intelligent Stochastic Computation Methods for Complex Statistical Model Learning (SmartBayes, 1.11.2009 – 31.10.2014)
  • Associate Professor , Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR): Comprehensive Molecular Characterization of Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation in the Atmosphere (COALA, 1.3.2015 - 29.2.2020)
  • Professor , Department of Mathematics and Statistics : Analytic-probabilistic methods for borderline singular integrals (AnProb, 1.11.2011 – 31.10.2016)
  • Professor , Department of Physics: Role of Molecular Clusters in Atmospheric Particle Formation (MOCAPAF, 1.2.2011 – 31.1.2016)

Initiated by the Academy of Finland and Tekes, the Finnish funding agency for technology and innovation, the Finland Distinguished Professor Programme (FiDiPro) was a funding programme to recruit non-Finnish or expatriate-Finnish professor-level researchers to Finland for a fixed term. Through the program, the Faculty of Science hosted several professorships.

  • Professor Gunther Uhlmann, University of Washington (USA)
  • , Université de Montréal (Canada)
  • , University of Groningen (The Netherlands)
  • Aerodyne Research Inc. (USA)
  • , Hebrew University of Jerusalem and University of California, Irvine (USA)
  • Professor Jürgen Münch, Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE, Germany)
  • , Colorado State University (USA)