Hannu Toivonen is the new Head of the department

Information systems professor Hannu Toivonen was elected head of the department for the next three-year period, 2007-2009. While he spent last year in Freiburg on research leave, he was approached about taking over
after Jukka Paakki, who was leaving the position at the beginning of this year. While apprehensive about the unfamiliar duties as administrative head, he was soon persuaded to accept. The greatest challenge in his new position is to maintain the standard of the work at the department in the face of diminishing basic funding. He hopes that external funding will help maintain a high standard that will continue to attract students and researchers from around the world.

For his own part, Hannu wants to ensure that the basic requirements for continuing in the same strain of quality results are there for the staff and students of the department. One of the department's problems is that so many
enter it but not so many graduate. The department will focus on long-term planning and monitoring to help students finish their degrees. Hannu has gained some understanding of the administration of the department through his work in the steering committee and the faculty council, and foresees a busy spring while learning the ropes of the head of the department.

Jukka Paakki is the new Dean of the Faculty of Science

After six years as head of the department, Jukka Paakki was elected dean of the faculty from the start of year 2007. Different interest groups convinced Jukka to stand for dean. When he looks back at the years of heading the department, he sees a long row of successes that are the fruit of long-term work: the establishment of HIIT and later BRU; FDK, a Finnish Academy centre of excellence; full points in the recent international research review; two professorships in the Finnish Academy; and several awards for the high-standing quality of teaching. For his own part, Jukka is pleased about having reorganised department administration during his time as head. Formerly, researchers had to carry out administrative tasks along with their research.

Another milestone was the move to Exactum in 2004, bringing the department into a close-knit community of science departments. As dean of the largest science faculty in Finland , he will be focusing on promoting cooperation between the departments at Kumpula. In his vision, the departments will attain greater goals if they work together than they would as separate entities. The Faculty of Science comprises seven departments, making it the largest science faculty in Finland as far as staff and students (6,000 undergraduates and graduates, 700 post-graduates) go.

Jukka says it is surprising how influential a dean may be inside the university, but outside the university – e.g. in relation to the Ministry of Education – communication is harder. However, it is always worth the trouble to raise pertinent issues, and Jukka is tireless in his pursuit of active and critical debate, both inside and outside academia.

Ari Rantanen's thesis: Algorithms for 13C Metabolic Flux Analysis

Ari Rantanen defended his doctoral thesis, Algorithms for 13C Metabolic Flux Analysis, on 20 November 2006. After defining the research problem with their research partners, computer scientists make their bastractions and computations, and when they are finished, biotechnology experts can determine whether the level of abstraction is still useful for their purposes. Ari says that metabolic flux analysis can be used to study e.g. how to make yeast produce ethanol. Cancers and other diseases can also affect the metabolism, though the metabolic networks of mammals have not been as well mapped as those of microbes. Ari continues his research started in his thesis under the auspices of the SYSFYS consortium. During the spring term, he will also be teaching a seminar on system biology and assist a course on modelling metabolic networks.

Diary by the new chairman of TKO-äly Matias Käkelä

Having recovered from his New Year's celebrations, Matias returns to his everyday toil at the department. He feels stressed with all that is going on; he needs to arrange the food for TKO-äly's steering committee
hand-over, plan his studies this spring and register for courses, make up a budget for the hand-over party, register a change with the Board of Patents and Registration, prepare a trip abroad, and work with
programming. But on the weekend he heads out of town for the hand-over meeting, where he is ceremoniously given the chairman's gavel for TKO-äly's new steering committee. The new steering committee spends a
restful weekend in the countryside, taking sauna baths, eating and celebrating the new committee.