Kari Heliövaara
1979 …2021

Research activity per year

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Personal profile

Description of research and teaching

Professor of forest zoology and game research since 1994. I graduated both from morphological zoology and agricultural and forest zoology, University of Helsinki. I started my career by studying the occurrence of the pine bark bug showing a peculiar alternate-year flight pattern. Research on this phenomenon produced analyses on genetical, morphometrical and biogeographical analyses associated with population differentiation and speciation. My current research interests include forest insect ecology, diversity, and insect-fungus interactions.

I have worked as a research scientist of the Academy of Finland and as leading researcher and professor of the Finnish Forest Research Institute (now The Natural Resources Institute Finland, LUKE), and as the Department Head for 8 years. I have also acted as an invited expert of forest zoology in the USA, and as an invited professor and lecturer at the Beijing Forestry University in China. My main research interest in northern China has mainly been associated with biodiversity and forest pest issues.

With my colleagues I have published about 100 peer reviewed papers, more than 100 popular articles and compiled more than 10 entomological books, including ‘Insects and Pollution, FL, USA'. For more information, see ResearchGate and Google Scholar. I have published thousands of drawings, pictures and photographs in scientific and commercial papers and books.

Fields of Science

  • 4112 Forestry
  • Entomology
  • Biodiversity
  • Forest damage

International and National Collaboration

Publications and projects within past five years.