New professors pitched at networking event – keynote given by Visiting Professor of Economics Seppo Honkapohja

The purpose of the event was to give professors from Aalto’s different schools the opportunity to get to know each other and to network.

The new professors participating in the event included Henrika Franck and Jari Melgin from the School of Business, Kari Astala and Antti Punkka from the School of Science, Joshua Pearce from the School of Electrical Engineering, and Pirjo Kääriäinen and Saara Saarela from the School of Arts, Design and Architecture. Also, Visiting Professor of Economics Seppo Honkapohja had been invited to give the keynote at the event.

‘The demand for economics experts is growing all the time, and so we need experts like Professor Bengt Holmström. Finland has internationally high-quality expertise in economics, but not enough of it. For example, there are currently 216 professors of economics in Sweden, while here in Finland there are only 54. With the help of new professorships, increasing cooperation, and the efficient concentration of skilled people, Helsinki GSE will be able to increase the number of master's degrees and doctorates and ensure that we have enough economics expertise in the future’, Seppo Honkapohja said.

Helsinki GSE will be fully operational by 2022, by which point the aim is to increase the number of professorships from the current 20 to a total of 35. Helsinki GSE’s Research Master programme, which prepares students for doctoral and postgraduate study, will begin in Autumn 2018.

The next professors’ networking event will be held on Tuesday 9 October 2018.

After the pitches given at the Palaver lecture hall, networking continued in an unofficial coctail party in the lobby bar.

Photos: Mikko Raskinen