Updated 16 December 2024
Tahani Aldahdouh, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2024-2026
Resilience Between Siege and Genocide: Gaza’s University Teachers Speak
Personal profile page | Research activities | Tahani and her research (video)
Tahani Aldahdouh is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Tampere Institute for Advanced Study. She is an active member of the Professional Growth and Learning (PGL) and Higher Education in Transition (HET) research groups at the Faculty of Education and Culture. As a Palestinian-Finnish researcher originally from Gaza, she is deeply committed to promoting education equality and contributing to global sustainable goals. Her research centers on university teachers’ professional development, with a focus on the applicability of Western theories in diverse, often overlooked contexts in global academia.
For the past nine years, she has explored university teachers’ professional development from multiple perspectives. Her doctoral research (2015–2020) investigated teachers’ innovativeness and willingness to embrace change. She subsequently led a Tampere University-funded postdoctoral project (2020–2021) examining online teaching expertise during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, she was awarded a one-year grant to study online teaching expertise in conflict-affected contexts, focusing on Palestine/Gaza. Currently, she aims to understand the resilience of university teachers in Gaza following the genocide. In particular, she investigates how the resilience of university teachers in post-genocide context emerges from the interplay among risk and protective factors across individual, institutional, and societal ecological levels.
David Díaz-Guerra Aparicio, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2024-2026
Geometric General Deep-Learning Models for Spatial Audio
Personal profile page | Research activities | David and his research (video)
David Diaz-Guerra studied telecommunications engineering at the University of Zaragoza (Spain), where he obtained his Ph.D. degree in March 2023 with the thesis A Geometric Deep Learning Approach to Sound Source Localization and Tracking. He is now a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Audio Research Group of Tampere University (Finland), where he worked on music sound source separation within the European Research and Innovation (RIA) project REPERTORIUM and now is conducting his own research project on spatial audio funded by the Tampere Institute for Advanced Study (IAS).
His project at the Tampere IAS focuses on spatial audio processing using deep learning methods. By using semi-supervised learning approaches and architectures that follow the geometric-deep-learning ideas, he aims to develop new models that can be trained with a lower amount of data and obtain better performance in problems such as sound field reconstruction or sound source localization or separation.
Minna Hankaniemi, Senior Research Fellow, 2024-2027
EVinONE – Vaccine and Diagnostic Tool Platform for Prevention and Intervention of Enterovirus-induced Diseases
Personal profile page | Research activities | Minna and her research (video)
Minna Hankaniemi is a Senior Research Fellow at the Tampere Institute for Advanced Study in 2024-2027. She is Adjunct Professor in Virology and Vaccine Immunology and she is the group leader of the Virology and Vaccine Immunology group at Tampere University.
Her research group specializes in the development of advanced protein-based vaccine and diagnostics platforms against viruses that cause high burden on health care systems and economy. The long-term goal of her group is to understand virus disease mechanisms and how protective immunity against viruses can be created at mucosal membranes and use this information in the development of safe, broad-reactive and cost-effective vaccines and diagnostics, that can be easily administered and supplied.
Currently she is leading Business Finland-funded Coronavirus vaccine development project PREPARE and Academy Research fellow Enterovirus vaccine development project in addition to several other research projects. Also, her group is part of Combatvirus consortium (funded by J & A Erkko foundation) as well as IN-ARMOR project EU consortium. These projects involve pre-clinical development of next generation antivirals, vaccine adjuvants, vaccines and immunotherapies for diseases with unmet medical needs.
Olli Herranen, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2024-2026
Climate Change Denialism as a Social Phenomenon in Finland
Personal profile page | Research activities | Olli and his research (video)
Olli Herranen is a Finnish sociologist with a profound interest in the multifaceted dimensions of climate change denialism. His project at the Tampere Institute for Advanced Study aims to connect various fundamental organizational principles of collective action in modern societies with statistically observable factors that predict climate denialism. From 2025 to 2028, Herranen will lead the research project “Social System Theories in the Era of Polycrisis – Explanatory Power and Applicability” (funded by Emil Aaltonen Foundation). This project delves into the core principles of social organization that enable life in complex, conflict-ridden, and differentiated societies to persist in a relatively stable and predictable manner.
Herranen is an active member of several esteemed academic communities, including the Climate Social Science Network and Centre for Studies of Climate Change Denialism. He has been affiliated with the Finnish academic publishing house Vastapaino for over a decade, also serving as its chair. As an author, Herranen has written “The Invisible Order” and co-authored “Suomen kolmas tasavalta” [“The Third Republic of Finland”].
Ville Härkönen, Senior Research Fellow, 2024-2027
Superconductivity Beyond the Born-Oppenheimer Approximation
Personal profile page | Research activities | Ville and his research (video)
Ville Härkönen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Tampere Institute for Advanced Study in 2024-2027. He is the group leader of the “Many-Body Theory” research group at the Computational Physics Laboratory, Tampere University. We conduct first-principles theoretical and computational studies of many-body quantum mechanical systems in the non-relativistic regime.
Miia Juntunen, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2024-2026
Cellular Interactions in White Adipose Tissue Browning
Personal profile page | Research activities | Miia and her research (video)
Miia Juntunen is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Tampere IAS and in the Adult Stem Cell Group at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology (MET). She obtained her doctoral degree from Tampere University in 2022 on Cell and Tissue Technology. Her research interests are adipose stromal/stem cells, cellular interactions in adipose tissue and in vitro models.
Juntunen’s current project focuses on understanding cellular interactions in white adipose tissue browning in vitro. For example, how neuronal cells and immune cells affect browning of white adipocytes. For that she is developing human cell-based 3D adipose tissue in vitro models in the Centre of Excellence in Body on-Chip Research (CoEBoC) research consortium.
Juulia Jylhävä, Senior Research Fellow, 2024-2027
Development of an Electronic Frailty Index for Finnish Healthcare to Identify
At-Risk Individuals at Early Stages
Personal profile page | Research activities | Juulia and her research (video)
Juulia Jylhävä (PhD, Docent) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Tampere Institute for Advanced Study in 2024-2027. She is the group leader of the Systems Biology of Aging research group at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University. Her research group studies biological aging — how to measure it, what drives it, and how it’s linked to adverse outcomes, such as age-related diseases and mortality. The group uses genetic, multiomics and AI approaches and causal inference methods in their work. The Jylhävä group aims to unravel why some people age in good health while others become frail and dependent on assistance earlier in life.
Another aim in Juulia Jylhäväs’ research is to develop an electronic frailty index for healthcare – a tool to measure whole-organism aging and identify vulnerable individuals at early stages. By understanding the causes of biological aging and creating tools to measure it, it may be possible to establish treatments and interventions that can slow the process and reduce the risk of age-related diseases.
The Jylhävä group is funded by the Research Council of Finland, Sigrid Jusélius foundation, Eureka Eurostars, Instrumentarium Science Foundation, and Signe and Ane Gyllenberg foundation.
Lauri Kokkinen, Senior Research Fellow, 2024-2027
Explaining Nordic Exceptionalism Using Fuzzy Sets
Personal profile page | Research activities | Lauri and his research (video)
Lauri Kokkinen (PhD and Docent in Social and Health Policy) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Tampere IAS. His research focuses on key social determinants of health and wellbeing, such as the labor market and the welfare state. His theoretical expertise centers around the institutional foundations of population health and wellbeing and methodologically, he has a diverse range of approaches, often utilizing data from registers, questionnaires, interviews, and documents in his research. Kokkinen leads the Health and Wellbeing Systems group and serves as a co-director of the WHO Collaborating Centre at Tampere University.”
Antti Kuusisto, Senior Research Fellow, 2024-2027
Logic and Explainability in Artificial Intelligence
Personal profile page | Research activities | Antti and his research (video)
Antti Kuusisto is a Senior Research Fellow at the Tampere Institute for Advanced Study in 2024-2027. He currently heads a team of six researchers which is part of the Mathematics Research Centre in the Computing Unit of the Tampere University ITC Faculty. The research team works on mathematical logic, theoretical computer science and explainability in artificial intelligence. The topics range from the internal complexity of abstract automatic reasoning processes to more real-life work on AI and human-interpretable classifiers. Kuusisto heads the Research Council of Finland consortium project titled “Explaining AI via Logic” with teams from Tampere and Helsinki.
Elina Kuusisto, Senior Research Fellow, 2024-2027
Towards Professional Class Tutoring and a Motivating School Community (MOTI)
Personal profile page | Research activities | Elina and her research (video)
Dr. Elina Kuusisto works as a Senior Research Fellow at Tampere Institute for Advanced Study. She is also a University Lecturer in the domain of diversity and inclusive education at the Tampere University, and she holds a Title of Docent at the University of Helsinki. Prior to Tampere University, she worked as an Associate Professor at University of Humanistic Studies, the Netherlands and as a Senior Researcher at Tallinn University, Estonia.
Dr Kuusisto has over a decade-long expertise in school pedagogy, moral education, and purpose studies. She has co-authored two monographs on teachers’ professional ethics.
She currently leads a project “Towards professional class tutoring and a motivating school community (MOTI)” funded by Kone Foundation. The study pioneers in establishing a theoretical and pedagogical basis for class tutoring (also known as homeroom teaching, form tutoring). This interdisciplinary and mixed-method research provides important theoretical, educational, and societal implications to strengthen class tutors’ professionality and support positive youth development among adolescents.
Binisha Hamal Mishra, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2024-2026
Uncovering Molecular Networks Linking Cardiovascular Disease and Its Comorbidities Using Multiomics and System Biology-based Machine Learning Methods
Personal profile page | Research activities | Binisha and her research (video)
Binisha Hamal Mishra is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Tampere Institute for Advanced Study for the period 2024–2026. She is currently working with the Clinical Chemistry group in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology at Tampere University, focusing on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its comorbidities. Her research aims to unravel the molecular networks linking CVD with comorbidities such as depression, obesity, diabetes, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, and chronic kidney disease. Her work involves the development and implementation of multiomic and systems biology-based machine learning methods.
The overall goal of her research is to deepen the understanding of these molecular relationships to facilitate the development of holistic prevention, treatment, and management strategies, which are crucial for further reducing premature CVD mortality.
Tiina Mäkelä, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2024-2026
Early Sleep for Development (Sleep4Dev)
Personal profile page | Research activities | Tiina and her research (video)
Tiina Mäkelä (PhD, neuropsychologist) is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Tampere IAS. She is currently working on a project called Early Sleep for Development (Sleep4Dev), which investigates the role of sleep in psychological development from early childhood through the school years. This research is part of the CHILD-SLEEP birth cohort. The collection of psychological data involves a multidimensional approach, combining questionnaire data and eye-tracking data with standard psychological methods. The focus will be on phenomena such as executive functioning, social information processing, parent-child interaction, and socio-emotional behavior. Sleep-related phenomena such as night awakenings, sleep duration, and sleep physiology will also be investigated.
Lena Möbus, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2024-2026
A Data-driven Approach for In Vitro Drug Testing by Integration of Phenotypic and Target-based Drug Discovery Strategies
Personal profile page | Research activities | Lena and her research (video)
Lena Möbus is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Finnish Hub for Development and Validation of Integrated Approaches (FHAIVE) within the Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology at Tampere University, specializing in molecular biology, omics data analysis, health data science, and drug discovery. Her research focuses on leveraging advanced multi-omics approaches to uncover the molecular mechanisms of diseases, with an emphasis on precision medicine and therapeutic innovation.
Möbus is currently developing multi-dimensional frameworks to map disease similarities and redefine disease relationships. Previously, she investigated immune dysregulation in inflammatory diseases such as atopic dermatitis, contributing to advancements in personalized medicine and drug discovery.
Srikrishnarka Pillalamarri, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2024-2026
Smart Mask for Non Invasive and Real-time Breath Metabolite Monitoring
(SMART-BREATH)
Personal profile page | Research activities | Srikrishnarka and his research (video)
Dr. Pillalamarri Srikrishnarka is a post-doctoral researcher at the Precision Nanomaterials Group at Tampere University, working under the supervision of Prof. Nonappa. His current research focuses on developing innovative biobased optical fiber sensing technologies for non-invasive breath analysis.
Specifically, Dr. Srikrishnarka is developing advanced optical fiber sensors capable of detecting key metabolites in exhaled breath, including:
- Carbon dioxide (CO2)
- Acetone
- Ammonia
This research leverages his extensive background in nanotechnology and sensing technologies to create cutting-edge, biobased optical fiber sensing solutions. By utilizing biobased materials and precision nanomaterials approaches, the project aims to create highly sensitive and potentially transformative diagnostic tools for breath metabolite analysis.
The work builds upon his previous research experience in developing advanced sensing technologies, including his prior work on breath monitoring and nanofiber-based sensing systems, now applying those insights to innovative optical fiber sensing methodologies.
Antonia Ressler, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2024-2026
Affordable Biomimetic Scaffolds Based on Substituted Calcium Phosphates and Bioactive Glass for Bone Regeneration Applications (GlassBoneS)
Personal profile page | Research activities | Antonia and her research (video)
Antonia Ressler studied at Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology (University of Zagreb), where she obtained her Ph.D. degree in 2020. Same year she received L’Oreal-UNESCO “Women in Science” award and in 2023 Award „Ivan Plotnikov“ for the best young scientist of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology of the University of Zagreb. In 2022, she came at Tampere University with Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship for project Development of personalized and affordable multi-substituted calcium phosphate based scaffolds for bone augmentation applications (AffordBoneS). She further continues to develop obtained biomaterials at Tampere Institute of Advances Study with the project Affordable biomimetic scaffolds based on substituted calcium phosphates and bioactive glass for bone regeneration applications (GlassBoneS).
The GlassBoneS project aims to develop a solution for maxillofacial bone augmentation procedures essential for dental implants when the patient does not have enough bone to attach the implantable screw to which the dental prosthesis is attached. Utilizing multi-substituted hydroxyapatite powders, the GlassBoneS aims to create scaffolds through Ceramic Vat Polymerization. The challenge lies in achieving suitable mechanical properties with required high-temperature sintering, compromising bioactivity. GlassBoneS proposes a solution to this by applying low-temperature sintering bioactive glass to coat hydroxyapatite particles. This approach preserves hydroxyapatite bioactivity but also enhances scaffold mechanical properties, while simultaneously addressing the threat of multi-drug resistant bacteria by incorporating trace elements into the bioactive glass.