Research

Ilkka Hanski has worked in population and community ecology and in conservation biology since the late 1970s. He has made contributions to the study of population regulation, cyclic population dynamics, and the mechanisms of coexistence of competitors in communities. Research conducted by him and his research group since the late 1980s has been instrumental for the development of metapopulation biology, a branch of biology with significance for conservation and management. The long-term and large-scale research project on the metapopulation biology of the Glanville fritillary butterfly is one of the best examples of how theoretical work can be effectively coupled with empirical studies in ecology.

Career

• 1996 Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary biology, University of Helsinki, Finland
• 1976-1979 University of Oxford, UK
• 1972-1976 University of Helsinki, Finland

Projects

• 1991-2017 Director of the Metapopulation Research Group (MRG) at the University of Helsinki, a Centre-of-Excellence in research in 2000 - 2017
• 2005-2008 US NSF Biocomplexity programme grant, co-PI with Prof. James Marden, Penn State, USA
• 1998-2001 Training and Mobility of Researchers network, Survival and persistence of species if fragmented landscapes (Fragland), European Union, coordinated by Prof. Hanski

Functions

• since 2012 Chair of a Synergy grant panel of the European Research Council
• 2007-2010 Chair of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology panel of the European Research Council
• 2004 Member of EASAC (European Academies, Science Advisory Council) working group to conduct a study on biodiversity indicators for the European Parliament
• 2004-2007 Member of the Advisory Board of the UK Population Biology Network (UKPopNet)
• 2001-2009 Board member, Finnish Cultural Foundation
• 1997-2000 Scientific Advisory Board of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), Santa Barbara, USA
• 1996-2003 Scientific Advisory Board of the University of Helsinki, Finland
• 1993-1996 Member of the DIVERSITAS steering group (IUBS-SCOPE-UNESCO), Programme on Biodiversity
• 1993-1996 Member of the working group for the UNEP Global Biodiversity Assessment
• 1993-1998 Member of the Steering Committee of the European Science Foundation Programme in Population Biology
• since 1993 International Ecology Institute, member of scientific staff
• 1991-1994 Member of the Life Sciences Committee of the NERC, UK

Honours and Memberships

• 2011 Crafoord Prize in Biosciences
• 2010 European Latsis Prize 2010 for biodiversity
• 2010 Foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences, USA
• 2010 Honorary doctorate, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
• 2007 Finnish Science Award
• 2007 Finnish State Prize for Dissemination  of Information
• 2006 Member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters
• 2006 Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
• 2005 Foreign Member of the Royal Society
• 2003 Honorary professorship in the Peking Normal University, China
• 2002 Foreign Member of German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• 2001 Member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters
• 2000 Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
• 2000 Balzan Price for Ecological Sciences
• 1999 International Ecology Institute (ECI), 1999 Prize in Terrestrial Ecology
• 1999 President’s Gold Medal, the British Ecological Society
• 1998 Member of the Academia Europaea