Minna Kuosmanen (minna.kuosmanen@uef.fi)
I work in the centralized human resources team as a human resources specialist. My tasks include Certia development cooperation, personnel services quality matters, tasks related to the evaluation of professors, consulting tasks related to hourly teaching and remuneration.
Noora Heiskanen (noora.heiskanen@uef.fi)
Noora studies themes related to special education, in particular early childhood special education (planning, documentation and evaluation of support, work of a special education teacher in early childhood education and care, behavior support, participation). Noora is an expert in early childhood special education and cooperates both nationally and internationally in research on the topic and has also extensively networked with societal actors. Noora’s duties include research, teaching, guidance and societal activities. In 2020-2021, Noora has led a large-scale national project to study support and inclusion practices in early childhood education and care commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Culture. At the moment, he leads the research project about administrative decisions on child’s support in early childhood education and care as well as Vaka-Tuvet project. In addition, Noora is a member of the Finnish Educational Society’s Early Childhood Education and Early Childhood Special Education (VAKAe) theme group and the editorial board of Barn – Forskning om barn og barndom i Norde. He is an alternate member of the Board of the Society for Childhood Studies. Noora has early childhood special education teacher qualification and she has worked in teaching positions in early childhood education, secondary education and university.
Organometallic synthesis
We are interested in the elaboration of synthetic methodologies and studying the physical behaviour of novel metal-based compounds, using an extensive interplay of experimental and computational approaches. In particular, a significant part of our research concerns the molecular design of tailorable light-emitting molecules, evaluation of their photophysical performance as a function of molecular structure and weak intra- and intermolecular non-covalent interactions. The fundamental knowledge on the structure-property relationships, which we acquire in the course of synthetic, theoretical and spectroscopic investigations, allows for rational tuning the optical and electronic behaviour of the new molecular materials. Ultimately, the improvement of physical and chemical properties has a potential to progress a number of photonic applications, which include imaging techniques, sensing and electroluminescent devices.
Petri Kahila (petri.kahila@uef.fi)
Areas of specialities are regional development, regional and local governance, rural development, social and territorial cohesion and policy evaluations
Päivi Atjonen (paivi.atjonen@uef.fi)
During my academic career, I have been interested in curriculum development of comprehensive schools, pedagogical use of ICT and pedagogical ethics. The most recent 15 years I have focused on research on assessment and evaluation with the special interest in developmental evaluation. My research topics are assessment and evaluation of learning and academic peer review. I work also as an active in-service educator of my research topic.
Saara Rissanen (saara.rissanen@uef.fi)
I have done research on biosignal measurements and analysis since year 2005 in the University of Eastern Finland (previously University of Kuopio) and in the Kuopio University Hospital. I received my PhD degree in year 2012 and the title of a docent of medical physics especially neurophysiological measurements and movement analysis in 2022. My special research interest has been in developing of monitoring methods for evaluation of movement disorders such as for Parkinson’s disease and myoclonus.
I am also a co-founder in a university-based spin-off company called Adamant Health Ltd.
Saara Sillanmäki (saara.sillanmaki@uef.fi)
I am a medical doctor from Kuopio. My research areas include cardiac imaging and physiology, aortic dilation, and the impact of sleep apnea on the heart. I graduated as a medical doctor from the University of Eastern Finland in 2012, obtained my Doctor of Medicine degree in 2019, and specialized in Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine in 2022.
I have nineteen international publications (JUFO categories 1-3), and I have also written national articles and international textbooks. My doctoral dissertation, completed in 2019, examined the relationship between the electrical and mechanical function of the left ventricle in bundle branch block patients. In this research, I used myocardial perfusion imaging, vector ECG, and echocardiography.
In addition to my clinical work in cardiac imaging (KYS, Imaging Center), I work as a researcher in four research groups: the MOMESY research group investigating modern cardiac magnetic methods (principal investigator), the Heart Surgery Imaging Research Group studying aortic dilation (DilAo, KYS), the STAR (Sleep Technology and Analytics Group, UEF) research group conducting sleep research, and the METSIM research group studying the cardiac effects of the metabolic syndrome. Additionally, I serve as the principal investigator for two projects at KYS: “Detection of Coronary Artery Disease with Micro-Electro-Mechanical Sensors (DECADE, Precordior Oy), a project involving the identification of coronary artery disease using microelectromechanical sensors, and a Horizon2020 project focusing on EU-regulated sleep apnea research. I have also worked as a heart health and imaging expert in a multinational breast cancer radiotherapy study and as a research physician in two multinational cardiac medication studies sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry.
I have actively participated in professional associations. I have served as the Secretary of the Finnish Medical Association’s Clinical physiology and Nuclear Medicine Section since 2015, and I became its chairman in 2018 (continuing). I also served as the Secretary of the Finnish Society of Clinical Physiology from 2016 to 2020. I have had the honor of serving on the Ethics Committee of the Northern Savo Hospital District since 2021 and as the Vice Chairman of the Imaging Section of the Finnish Cardiac Society since 2022. I am also a member of the international education-promoting committee, the Section of Nuclear Medicine of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), and the European Board of Nuclear Medicine (EBNM) CME Accreditation Committee since 2017.
A19: Sillanmäki S, Vainio HL, Ylä-Herttuala E, Husso M, Hedman M. Measuring cardiac dyssynchrony with DENSE (Displacement encoding with stimulated echoes) — a systematic review. Published Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine Sep 2023
A18: Hietakoste S, Armañac-Julián P, Karhu T, Bailón R, Sillanmäki S, Töyräs J, Leppänen T, Myllymaa S, Kainulainen S. Impaired cardiorespiratory coupling in severe sleep apnea-related hypoxemia. Published IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2023
A17: Sillanmäki S and Iso-Mustajärvi S, 18F-FDG-PET of cardiac sarcoidosis with subcutaneous nodules. Published in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology J Nucl Cardiol 2023
A16: Rissanen M, Korkalainen H, Duce B, Sillanmäki S, Pitkänen H, Suni A, Nikkonen S, Kulkas S, Töyräs J, Leppänen T, Kainulainen S. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients with Atrial Arrhythmias Suffer from Prolonged Recovery from Desaturations. Transactions on Biomedical Engineering 2023; https://doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2023.3236680.
A15: Hautanen S, Kiljander T, Korpela T, Saari P, Kokkonen J, Mustonen P, Sillanmäki S, Ylä-Herttuala E, Husso M, Hedman M, Kauhanen P. 4D Flow Versus 2D Phase Contrast MRI in Populations With Bi- and Tricuspid Aortic Valves. In Vivo 2023, 37(1):88-98.
A14: Leppänen T, Kainulainen S, Korkalainen H, Sillanmäki S, Kulkas A, Töyräs J, Nikkonen S. Oximetry: The Working Principle, Signal Formation, and Applications. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2022;1384:C1. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-06413-5_23
A13: Ebrahimian S, Sillanmäki S, Hietakoste S, Duce B, Kulkas A, Töyräs J, Leppänen T, Lipponen JA, Kainulainen S. Inter-sleep stage variations in corrected QT interval differ between obstructive sleep apnea patients with and without stroke history. PLoS One. 2022 Dec 1;17(12):e0278520.
A12: Anttila V, Saraste A, Knuuti J, Hedman M, Jaakkola P, Laugwitz KL, Krane M, Jeppsson A, Sillanmäki S, Rosenmeier J, ZingmarkP, Rudvik A, Garkaviy P, Watson C, Pangalos MN, Fritsche-Danielson R, Collén A, Gan LM. Direct intramyocardial injection of VEGF mRNA in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting. Mol Ther. 2023, 17;S1525-0016(22)00675-X.
A11: Hietakoste S, Karhu T, Sillanmäki S, Bailón R, Penzel T, Töyräs J, Leppänen T, Myllymaa S, Kainulainen S. OSA-related respiratory events and desaturation severity are associated with the cardiac response. ERJ Open Research, 2022, 22(1), 204.
A10: Sillanmäki S, Lipponen JA, Korkalainen H, Kulkas A, Leppänen T, Nikkonen S, Töyräs J, Duce B, Suni A, Kainulainen S. QTc prolongation is associated with severe desaturations in stroke patients with sleep apnea. BMC Pulmonary Medicine. May 2022.
A9: Sillanmäki S, Istomina M, Husso A, Hedman M. Reversible myocardial ischaemia caused by ectopic left circumflex coronary artery: a case report. European Heart Journal – Case Report, April 2022.
A8: Hietakoste S, Korkalainen H, Kainulainen S, Sillanmäki S, Nikkonen S, Myllymaa S, Duce B, Töyräs J, Leppänen T. Longer apneas and hypopneas are associated with greater ultra-short-term HRV in obstructive sleep apnea. Sci Rep. Dec 2020.
A7: Sillanmäki S, Gimelli A, Ahmad S, Samir S, Laitinen T, Soman P. Mechanisms of Left Ventricular Dyssynchrony – A Multinational SPECT study of Patients with Bundle Branch Block. In press. J Nucl Cardiol. 2020 Feb 14.
A6: Soman P, Sillanmäki S. Mechanisms of cardiac resynchronization therapy: Inching closer to the truth. J Nucl Cardiol. 2019 Jun 21.
A5: Sillanmäki S, Aapro S, Lipponen JA, Tarvainen MP, Laitinen TM, Hedman M, Hämäläinen H, Laitinen T. Electrical and mechanical dyssynchrony in patients with Right Bundle Branch Block. Accepted for publication J Nucl Cardiol. Aug 2018
A4: Sillanmäki S Lipponen JA, Tarvainen MP, Laitinen TM, Hedman M, Hedman A, Kivelä A, Hämäläinen H, Laitinen T. Relationships between electrical and mechanical dyssynchrony in patients with left bundle branch block and healthy controls. J Nucl Cardiol. 2018 Feb 8. doi: 10.1007/s12350-018-1204-0.
A3: Koivumäki T, Fogliatac, Zeverinod, Bomane, Sierpowska, Moecklid, Vallet, Cozzici, Heikkilä, Väänänen, Vuolukka, Sillanmäki S, Seppälä. Dosimetric evaluation of modern radiation therapy techniques for left breast in deep-inspiration breath-hold, Physica Medica 2018
A2: Sillanmäki S, Koivumäki T, Laitinen TM, Hakulinen M, Hedman M, Laitinen T. BMI influence on the reproducibility of ECG-gated myocardial perfusion imaging phase analysis in comparison with novel echocardiographic dyssynchrony estimation methods. Nuclear Medicine Communications. 2016 Jul;37(7):767-74.
A1: Koivumäki T, Heikkilä J, Väänänen A, Koskela K, Sillanmäki S, Seppälä J. Flattening filter free technique in breath-hold treatments of left-sided breast cancer: The effect on beam-on time and dose distributions. Radiotherapy and Oncology. 2016 Jan;118(1):194-8.
Seita Vesa (seita.vesa@uef.fi)
Dr. Seita Vesa is a Professor of Environmental Law (especially sustainability transition) at the University of Eastern Finland Center for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law (CCEEL) and a Research Professor at the Finnish Environment Institute’s Climate Solutions Unit (SYKE).
Within the UEF Law School, Professor Vesa serves as both the Head of Research and the Head of the UEF Doctoral Programme in Law. Her extensive academic research portfolio encompasses a range of topics in international and EU environmental and climate law. This includes, i.e., the legal framework of the LULUCF and effort sharing sectors, renewable energy, forests and bioenergy, sustainability transitions, environmental protection, and Arctic environmental law. Her theoretically oriented research delves into the capacities of law in sustainability transition and decarbonisation, the evolution of EU climate law and its intersections with fields like environmental and energy law, and the nexus between law and science, emphasizing various aspects of legitimacy.
Actively involved in research projects, Professor Vesa is the vice-PI for SRC RELIEF from 2023 onwards. She also plays a significant role in the advancement of UEF’s strategic research, acting as the Vice Director for one of UEF RC’s initiatives, RESOURCE, which is dedicated to fostering a Sustainable Resource Society centered on Circular Economy, Energy, and Raw Materials.
Her teaching portfolio is primarily centered on EU environmental and climate law, and she supervises both PhD researchers and Master’s students. With her experience, she has been instrumental in the development and management of international Master’s programmes in law.
Beyond her academic endeavors, Professor Vesa has collaborated extensively on an international scale, encompassing research, teaching, and project work. She holds expert positions in different national and international working and steering groups and has received appointments to scientific evaluation panels. Furthermore, she offers her expertise as a consultant in environmental law.