The Finnish Science Prize to Academy Professor Ilkka Hanski

The Finnish Science Award is conferred every other year in recognition of high-standard research of special significance and international relevance. Including this year, the prize has now been awarded six times.

Grounds for the prize:

Ecology is the specialist field of research for Academy Professor Ilkka Hanski (born 1953). He took his PhD at Oxford University in 1979, and has worked as the Acting Professor of Zoology (1988–1991) and Professor of Zoology (1993–) at the University of Helsinki and as an Academy Professor of the Academy of Finland (1996–). In addition, he has worked as a research assistant, junior researcher, and senior research fellow at the Academy of Finland.

Academy Professor Ilkka Hanski is without question one of the world’s leading scientists in ecology, and his research group conducts some of the world’s most outstanding research on theoretical and experimental population biology. His is an enticing research and educational environment, which attracts researchers and postgraduate students from all over the world. Hanski’s research group is also one of the national Centres of Excellence in Research.

Ilkka Hanski’s research initially focused on population structures and mutual relationships in small-scale heterogeneous habitats, and population dynamics. Since the early 1980s, his research has covered increasingly large spatial contexts, such as the ecological, genetic, and evolutionary consequences of fragmented population structures.

Today, Ilkka Hanski is an internationally-acclaimed pioneer, who has changed the way of thinking in his field. Hanski and his group have had a major impact, not only on metapopulation research, but also on the emergence of metapopulation biology as an important field in population biology. A metapopulation is a large population divided into several individual populations, the survival and growth of which depends on the extinction risk of the sub-populations and recolonisation. Hanski’s extensive long-term field studies on the population dynamics of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) on the Åland Islands in southern Finland is a world-famous system model, considered a classic.

Ilkka Hanski’s scientific work is exceptionally extensive: he has authored more than 200 scientific articles and several compilations, such as two seminal, widely read and cited works on metapopulation biology together with American colleague Michael Gilpin. Ilkka Hanski’s Metapopulation Ecology, published in 1999, is a comprehensive synthesis of the research results on fragmented ecosystems over the past couple of decades. In it, Ilkka Hanski uses examples to shed light on the significance of metapopulation research in conservation biology, and gives his views from many metapopulation biology perspectives. The book is a cornerstone for both researchers and workers in population biology, conservation biology, and landscape ecology.

Ilkka Hanski is the only Finnish scientist to rank among the top ten in his field (Ecology and the Environment, Thompson ISI), where scientific impact is measured by the number of times his scientific articles have been cited. In the field of ecology, Hanski is the fourth most-cited scientist.

Ilkka Hanski's wide international renown is clear from his numerous international positions of trust, and he has received several honours for his significant contribution to science. The latest was his appointment as a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006. In 2005, he was invited as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, and he was a recipient of the prestigious Marsh Award for Ecology, awarded by the British Ecological Society. Hanski is only the second ever Finnish member of the Royal Society, established in 1660.

Hanski’s research on population biology also has practical applications. An understanding of biodiversity and population dynamics is important to practical conservation biology and land use planning. Mathematical models developed by Hanski’s group can be applied in reconciling the needs of humans and nature.

Ilkka Hanski also actively participates in public debate. He explains research results and their significance, making them understandable to both the general public and decision-makers alike. He feels that ecologists should assess the strength of their data in each case and make the results of their research widely known. Ilkka Hanski disseminates scientific knowledge in various media, both nationally and internationally, in the press, radio, and television.

For more information please contact
– Annu Jylhä-Pyykönen, Counsellor of Education (Ministry of Education), tel.+358 (0)9 160 77200