Riitta Hari


Riitta Kyllikki Hari is a Finnish neuroscientist, physician and professor at Aalto University. She has led the Brain Research Unit at the Low Temperature Laboratory since 1982. Hari was appointed as Academician of Science on 26 November 2010.
Her most significant achievements relate to the understanding of healthy and diseased human cortex development. This involves magnetoencephalography, a process that allows for investigation of neuronal activity in the brain in a non-invasive way.

Education

Hari graduated from the University of Helsinki as a doctor in 1974 and Doctor of Medical Science in 1980.

Research interests

Her research interests are varied and cover many areas of neuroscience. For example:
Hari has published nearly 300 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous other publications. As of Autumn 2016 her publications have been cited more than 36,000 times.

Awards

Hari has been granted several prestigious awards and recognitions both abroad and in her home country of Finland, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Lisbon in 2003, the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in Switzerland in 2003, the Justine and Yves Sergent Prize for Cognitive Neuroscience in Canada in 2002 and the Award for the Advancement of European Science in Germany in 1987, and the Finnish Science Award in 2009, an honorary doctorate from the University of Kuopio in 2005 and the Matti Äyräpää Prize in 2001.