I have been a Professor of Physics at University of Turku since 2000. I studied theoretical physics in University of Helsinki (HU) for 1984-1992. For 1989-1993 I worked at the Research Institute for Theoretical Physics at (HU) and obtained my PhD in 1992. For 1993-1995 I worked at the University of Oxford as a postdoctoral researcher, and returned to the University of Helsinki in 1995 as an Academy of Finland researcher, continuing in 1997 as a project leader and Academy researcher at the newly established Helsinki Institute of Physics. I am the director of the Laboratory of Quantum Optics at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku. Since 2012 I have been the vice-rector for research at the University of Turku.

I studied botany, zoology, chemistry, plant physiology, genetics and molecular biology at the departments of Biology and Biochemistry and Food Chemistry at the University of Turku 1979- 1990. I obtained my Bachelor of Science (Botany) in 1982, Master of Science (Botany) in 1985, Highest degree in Biochemistry (mol. boil.) for Msc in 1985, Licentiate in Philosophy (Plant Physiology) in 1987, Cum laude approbatur in Genetics in 1989, PhD in 1990, title of docet/Adjunct Professor in Mycology (Plant Phyusiology and Molecular Biolgy) in 1997 (University of Turku) and title of docent/Adjunct Professor in Mycology (Ecology and Systematids/Plant Biology) in 2002.

I have visited: Department of Plant Physiology at the University of Lund in Sweden for three months in 1984,Komarov Botanical institute for one month in Leningrad in Soviet Union in 1987 and two weeks in 1997, Department of Plant Biology for six months at the University of Groningen in Haren in the Netherlands in 1987, Mushroom expedition of one week to Perm Region near Ural mountains with Russian mycologists in 1993,  Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute in Gatchina in Russia for two months in 1994-1995, two weeks in 2000 and one week in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Dundee, Scotland for one week in 1998, All-Russian Plant Protection Institute in St. Petersburg for one to two weeks in 1999-2019 and in 2022, University of Western Australia, Perth, for one week in 2000, Mycology Group BioCentrum – Technical University of Denmark two weeks in 2003 and one week in 2004, Norwegian Plant Protection Institute in Ås Norway one week in 2004 and 2005, United States, Department of Agriculture, Peoria, USA, March 9-April 9, 2007, United States, Kansas State University, University of Minnesota and Department of Agriculture, Peoria, March 9-20, 2009, Erasmus visit to the University of Sassari in Italy on October 11-16,, 2009,Invited guest at Mahatma Gandhi Institute and the University of Hyderabad in Hyderabad India for one week on February 2-9, 2011, Oscar project meetings in Viterbo Italy on June 3-5, 2013, Marrakech Morocco March 24-28, 2014, Sonsveien Norway, June 29-July 2, 2015 and Witzenahausen German on February 15-18, 2016.