Professor Risto Kostiainen was appointed as the professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Helsinki (UH) in 1997. He has acted as the head of the Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry during 1999-2010, as the head of Drug Discovery Technology Centre (DDTC) at UH 2000-2005, and as the Vice-Dean of the research affairs of the Faculty of Pharmacy 2010-2017. Before his scientific career at UH, he acted as the group leader in the National Research Center of Finland (1995-1997) and in the Food and Environmental laboratory of Helsinki (1988-1995).

Professor Kostiainen's research interests include the development of new more efficient and sensitive analytical technologies applicable in chemistry, biology, and medicine. His main interests are fundamentals of gas phase ion-molecule reactions and ionization mechanisms in mass spectrometry, microchip technology and metabolomics. The main application areas are metabolite analysis and metabolomics focused to degenerative diseases. Prof. Kostiainen has published over 230 full articles in international peer reviewed scientific journals, five patents, and supervised 27 PhD theses. Prof. Kostiainen has been the head of several research projects funded by the Academy of Finland, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (TEKES), EU, and WADA. He has kept several invited plenary and key note presentations in international scientific conferences. Professor Kostiainen is an active board member in national and international scientific committees, evaluation panels and societies. He has recieved First Class Knight of the White Rose of Finland medal and has been appointed the member of Finnish Academy of Science.