Professor Olli Silvennoinen has been appointed as director of the Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE) at the University of Helsinki.

Previously, Silvennoinen has served as director of the Institute of Biotechnology, which operates as part of HiLIFE.

“Olli Silvennoinen is an internationally renowned researcher who has led the Institute of Biotechnology with success. His prior experience in management and leadership includes the establishment of a research unit at the University of Tampere. Silvennoinen has an extensive and multidisciplinary international research network, as well as a clear vision for the future development of HiLIFE,” says Paula Eerola, vice-rector of the University of Helsinki.

For the past months, Olli Silvennoinen has served as interim director of HiLIFE. “HiLIFE has demonstrated its importance in both recruiting top-level talent and developing infrastructures, as well as in supporting research of a high standard,” he says.

Silvennoinen believes that HiLIFE has achieved a lot in a short period of time, yet much remains to be done. “I am convinced that HiLIFE plays a critical and strategic role in representing the top-level life science research conducted at the University of Helsinki and developing multidisciplinary activities across campus boundaries, something which is increasingly important for the University’s global impact,” he states.

A doctoral degree from the University of Helsinki in 1988

Prior to the Institute of Biotechnology, Silvennoinen worked as a professor and director of the Institute of Medical Technology at the University of Tampere. He also spent several years of his career in the United States, for example, at Yale University. Silvennoinen graduated with a doctoral degree from the University of Helsinki in 1988.

The Helsinki Institute of Life Science HiLIFE is a research centre established in 2017 that supports top-level research in the life sciences across the campuses of the University of Helsinki and its faculties involved in the field. Research in the life sciences encompasses a wide range of topics from the structure, function and dynamics of molecules and cells to organisms and ecosystems as a whole.

Photo: Veikko Somerpuro/University of Helsinki