Risto Nieminen and Heikki Mannila receive decorations awarded by the President of Finland
16.02.2012
In February, during a morning coffee event hosted by the dean of the School of Science Ilkka Niemelä, Aalto Professor Risto Nieminen from the School of Science and Aalto University Vice President Heikki Mannila received decorations granted by the President of Finland. Dean Niemelä and HR Manager Helena Knuuttila presented the decorations to the two recipients.
Aalto Professor Risto Nieminen awarded Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland decoration
Professor Risto Nieminen is a specialist in the field of theoretical and computational materials physics and the published author of over 500 scientific articles in this field. Professor Nieminen is the head of COMP, the Academy of Finland’s Centre of Excellence in Computational Nanoscience. The centre of excellence utilises the phenomena of materials science and engineering as well as nanotechnology in the research of computational methods. The centre is an international leader in the field’s research.
Professor Nieminen holds an important and visible role in the field's international research community. His work is an exemplary example of basic research in which a researcher has dared to take risks. In addition to his scientific achievements, Professor Nieminen is also an excellent role model for young researchers and is said to inspire and encourage the students he instructs. He was named Aalto University’s first Aalto Professor in August 2010.
Vice President Heikki Mannila awarded the First Class Medal of the White Rose of Finland
Aalto University Vice President Heikki Mannila is a pioneer in the research of data mining and a key developer of its methods. In addition to basic research in information and computer science, Mr Mannila has actively worked in several application areas of which the most important is bioinformatics. Other application areas include communications, paleoecology, palaeontology and philology. From 2004 to 2009 he worked as an Academy Professor in the field of Algorithm pattern finding and data mining theory.
In 2003, Mr Mannila received the ACM SIGKDD Innovation Award and in 2009 the IEEE ICDM Research Contributions Award. Heikki Mannila is the published author of nearly 200 articles printed in numerous journals and conference publications of high standing in the science world.
On the left Dean Ilkka Niemelä, Aalto professor Risto Nieminen and HR Manager Helena Knuuttila.