Academy Professor Samuel Kaski

Professor Samuel Kaski was selected as an Academy Professor. Kaski works at the department of Computer Science in Aalto University, and he is also the director of the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Computational Inference Research (COIN)  and the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT).

Samuel Kaski develops computational methods for interactive multi-source data analysis and machine learning. They will be applied first to personalised medicine, but they will also be applicable to the ever widely available collections of datasets in science and data-based services. Current data analysis methods are ill prepared for the challenges underlying personalised medicine. Responses to treatments need to be predicted based on very small samples, even from only one, with avery large number of variables. Kaski is a pioneer in many areas of machine learning technology and applications, and he has contributed to several significant scientific breakthroughs in this multidisciplinary field. More information about his research group.

The Academy of Finland has decided to fund eight new research posts as Academy Professor for the years 2016–2020. The new Academy Professors are Professor Pertti Alasuutari (University of Tampere), Professor Hannu Häkkinen (University of Jyväskylä), Professor Kai Kaila (University of Helsinki), Professor Samuel Kaski (Aalto University), Professor Matti Keloharju (Aalto University), Professor Riitta Lahesmaa (University of Turku), Professor Virpi Lummaa (University of Turku) and Professor Seppo Ylä-Herttuala (University of Eastern Finland).

The new Academy Professors conduct research in a wide range of disciplines: sociology; nanoscience and nanotechnology; neuroscience; computational data analysis; business economics and economics; biomedicine and cellular and molecular biology; ecology, evolutionary biology and ecophysiology; and biomedicine, clinical medicine. The aim of the Academy of Finland’s funding for research posts as Academy Professor is to facilitate full-time scientific research for internationally leading-edge researchers. Academy Professors are expected to greatly contribute to the progress of research in their fields and develop a creative research environment. At present, the Academy funds 44 five-year Academy Professorships in a number of disciplines. Two of the Academy Professorships are targeted posts, open for application every five years: the Minna Canth Academy Professorship and the Martti Ahtisaari Academy Professorship.

Links to the news:

Academy of Finland to fund eight new Academy Professors

Aalto CS department

Aalto SCI school