Partners

Partners involved in VECLIMIT lead by Prof. Olli Vapalahti.
University of Helsinki
Olli Vapalahti (Project Leader)

MD, PhD, Professor of zoonotic virology (since 2003)

I work both at medical and veterinary faculties of University of Helsinki, Finland. I have supervised 12 finalized PhD projects and have 277 PubMed publications (July 2018) mainly on arboviruses and zoonoses. I am also a specialist in clinical microbiology with clincial diagnostic responsibilites at Helsinki University Hospital laboratories with a unit for viral zoonoses. I am member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters, and member of EVD-LabNet (Emerging Viral diseases Laboratory Network).

University of Helsinki Team: Dr. Teemu Smura (Coordinator VECLIMIT), Dr. Ravi Kant (Coordinator VECLIMIT), Dr. Fath­iah Za­kham (Coordinator VECLIMIT), Asso. Prof. Tarja Sironen, Dr. Eili Huhtamo and Dr. Mika Sil­jander

Viral Zoonoses Research Unit

FMI
Hilppa Gregow

PhD, Adjunct Professor and Head of Unit (Weather and Climate Change Impact Research), 

I have worked for the Finnish Meteorological Institute since 1994. My own focus of research is storms, extreme weather and climate change impacts. I have published nearly 50 peer-reviewed articles (Google Scholar). During my career at FMI, I have worked as a meteorologist, tv-meteorologist, researcher, head of one research group and two units. I have led many projects, for instance DECM about climate model data evaluation and CLIPS about six-week impact forecasting. One of my favourite topics is outreach. As an example, I renewed FMI Climate Bulletin and established also a novel series Climate Bulletin Research Letters. The other members of the Finnish Meteorological Institute team in the VECLIMIT are experts in microclimate and high-resolution impact modelling.

Finnish Meteorological Institute Team: Research Professor, Adj. Prof. Juha Aalto, senior scientist Dr. Andrea Vajda

Weather and Climate Change Impact Research

LUKE
Otso Huitu

PhD, Adjunct Professor, LUKE

I am an animal ecologist specializing in the population ecology, disease ecology and management of boreal small mammals. I have studied the effects of climate, food resources, predation and pathogen infection risk on voles and their population dynamics. The other members of the group provide expertise in small rodent and ungulate ecology and spatiotemporal population modelling.

Luke team: Prof. Emeritus Heikki Henttonen, Dr. Juho Matala, Dr. Markus Melin, MSc Jukka Niemimaa

LUKE

University of Turku
Jukka Hytönen

MD, PhD, Assistant Professor professor of bacteriology

I work at the medical faculty of University of Turku, Finland. I have supervised five finalized PhD projects and have around 50 publications mainly on Lyme borreliosis and other tick-borne infections. I work also as a specialist in clinical microbiology at Turku University Hospital with a special responsibility of diagnostics of Lyme borreliosis. The other members of the University of Turku team in the VECLIMIT consortium are experts in tick biology, and in seroepidemiology of vector-borne infections.

University of Turku Team: MSc Otto Glader, Professor Ilkka Julkunen, Docent Laura Kakkola, Docent Tero Klemola, MSc Maija Laaksonen, PhD Annukka Pietikäinen, PhD Jani Sormunen, and Docent Eero Vesterinen.

University of Turku

 

University of Jyväskylä
Eva Kal­lio

PhD, Academy Research Fellow, University of Jyväskylä

University of Jyväskylä

 

THL
Jussi Sane

Senior Expert, Na­tional In­sti­tute for Health and Wel­fare

Na­tional In­sti­tute for Health and Wel­fare

Finnish Food Authority
Antti Oksanen

PhD, Professor, Finnish Food Au­thor­ity

I’m a veterinarian working mostly on wildlife and arctic parasitology, especially including zoonotic infections, such as Trichinella, Toxoplasma, Taenia and Echinococcus. My workplace is in Oulu, where I’m responsible for the National Reference Laboratory for Parasites.

Finnish Food Au­thor­ity Team: Prof. Tuija Gadd, Dr. Riikka Holopainen, Dr. Marja Isomursu, Petra Heikkinen, Minna Nylund

Finnish Food Au­thor­ity