Sami Ojanen

Tutkimuksen ja opetuksen kuvaus

I graduated in 2001 from the University of Helsinki with animal physiology as my major and minors in genetics and biochemistry. The next five years I worked in the National Public Health Institute (currently National Institute for Health and Welfare) and completed my degree of Licentiate in Neurobiology. After this, I joined an Academy of Finland funded Centre of Excellence in Metapopulation Research, where I did work from 2007 until 2017, doing all sorts of IT, technical and administrative tasks. I was also responsible for managing and supervising annual large-scale field surveys of  Glanville fritillary butterfly in the Åland Islands. In 2017 I moved to a position in University Research Services, first as a team leader and since 2020 as Head of Project Coordination Services.

During my research career in the National Public Health Institute, and more precisely in the Alcohol Research Centre, my research was focused on the long-term effects of repeated alcohol and drug use. Repeated use of drugs of abuse induces permanent changes in the brain that together with environmental factors, can promote the development of addiction. Later in the Metapopulation Research Centre, I participated in population ecology and evolution related research using Glanville fritillary butterfly metapopulation in the Åland Islands as a model for various research aspects.