Ilkka Hanski

Who is Ilkka Hanski?

Ilkka A. Hanski ForMemRS is a Finnish scientist, working in the field of ecology, at the University of Helsinki, Finland. The Metapopulation Research Group led by Hanski has been nominated as a Center of Excellence by the Academy of Finland. The group studies species living in fragmented landscapes and attempts to advance such research of metapopulation ecology that can be applied to preserving nature. Metapopulation ecology itself studies populations of plants and animals which are separated in space by occupying patches.

Ilkka Hanski took his Bachelor's degree and Licentiate's degree in the University of Helsinki in 1976 and Doctoral degree from the University of Oxford in 1979. He was appointed as a docent in the University of Helsinki in 1981 and in the University of Joensuu in 1983. Hanski was a graduate student in Oxford from 1976 to 1979. He has worked in the Academy of Finland from 1978 to 1988 as well as from 1991 to 1992. He worked as an acting professor of zoology in the University of Helsinki from 1988 to 1991, and was appointed professorship of zoology in 1993. Hanski has work as an Academy Professor of the Academy of Finland from 1996. In 2000 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for Ecological Sciences. In 2000, he was elected a foreign members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In June 2005, he was the second Finnish scientist ever made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of London. In April 2006, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Crafoord Prize in biosciences 2011 “for his pioneering studies on how spatial variation affects the dynamics of animal and plant populations”.