People

Markus Linder [responsible contact]

Professor, Biomolecular Materials / Aalto University, School of Chemical Engineering

I work on new ways of using biotechnology to produce materials. The research aims at new ways to produce materials in an ecologically sustainable way. Example of such materials include silk made by microbes and new biotechnical ways to process cellulose for materials.

markus.linder [at] aalto.fi

Kirsi Niinimäki

Associate Professor, Design, especially Fashion Research / Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture

Her research has focused on holistic understanding of sustainable fashion and textile fields and connections between design, manufacturing, business models and consumption. Her research group the Fashion/Textile Futures is involved in several significant research projects, which integrate closed loop, bio-economy and circular economy approaches in fashion and textile systems and extends the understanding of strategic sustainable design.

Sami Hirvonen

Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki

I work as laboratory engineer in the Polymers and Colloids group in the University of Helsinki Faculty of Science. I defended my PhD. thesis on 2015 at the same laboratory. At the beginning of 2017 I started as a postdoc in the NewSilk project before getting a permanent position. I'm specialized in polymer synthesis and characterization. My previous studies incluce complex formation between proteins and polyelectrolytes as well as synthesis and characterization of conducting polymers in aqueous media.

Pirjo Kääriäinen

Professor of Practice, Design Driven Fibre Innovation / Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture

I have worked at the Aalto University since 2008, and since 2011 I have been facilitating interdisciplinary  CHEMARTS collaboration between the School of Arts, Design and Architecture (ARTS) and the School of Chemical Engineering (CHEM). CHEMARTS is aiming to inspire students and researchers to explore bio-based materials together, and to create new material concepts for the future. We have several ongoing research projects for a sustainable world of materials. Before my career in academia, I worked eighteen years for Scandinavian textile commerce, and gained experience also as an entrepreneur and consultant for creative industries.

My professional interests are: Bio-based materials, interdisciplinary collaboration, design for sustainable materials, experimental design, future textiles.

Laura Lemetti

Doctoral Candidate / Aalto University, School of Chemical Engineering

I am doing my PhD studies among recombinant spider silk proteins and their liquid-liquid phase separation properties. The focus of my work is to understand how dilute solution of recombinant silk protein can be brought together to form molecular assemblies needed to obtain high performance materials. This will hopefully help us to design diverse biomaterials in the future.

Erno Karjalainen

Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Chemistry / University of Helsinki

I obtained my PhD in polymer chemistry from University of Helsinki in 2015. After working as a postdoc in The University of Nottingham, I returned to Finland and am currently working as a postdoc at Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki. My research interest include polymer synthesis, solution properties of responsive polymers, smart materials, and mechanical characterization of polymer materials.

Teemu Välisalmi

Doctoral Candidate / Aalto University School of Chemical Engineering

I study formation of silk fibers from liquid silk dope, and how to achieve the properties of native spider silk with our engineered silk proteins.

Pirita Lauri

Doctoral Candidate / Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture

My doctoral research joins a current discourse on the integration of design into materials sciences at the early stages of the development processes. The starting point of the research is located in the intersection of textile design and synthetic biology with the objective to explore this novel territory of living matter as a design medium.

Maria Sammalkorpi

Senior Scientist / Aalto University School of Chemical Engineering

The Sammalkorpi Research Group at Aalto University studies soft materials systems via computational modelling. The group contributes to the NEWSILK project by molecular modelling of the protein solutions to isolate the contributions influencing structure correlations in the protein solutions and molecular level features affecting materials characteristics. Group home page: https://www.aalto.fi/department-of-chemistry-and-materials-science/soft-materials-modelling

Sousa JavanNikkhah

Postdoctoral Researcher / Aalto University School of Chemical Engineering

I have a PhD of Chemical Engineering (Polymeric Molecular Engineering) and currently I am working as a Post-doc researcher in the Soft Materials Modeling Group in Department of Chemistry and Material Science, with the expertise in molecular dynamic simulations in polymer interfaces, polymer solutions, membranes and drug delivery.