报告题目：Exploration of the earth's crust deep biosphere
报  告  人：Merja Itävaara
VTT, Biotechnology cluster, Tietotie 2,
Espoo, P.O.Box 1000, 02044 VTT, Finland,
email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , tel: 0207225172
报告时间：10月25日14：00-15：00
报告地点：木兰楼A109会议室
组织单位：微生物海洋学实验室
生命科学技术学院

报告人简介：


Dr. Merja Itävaara, chief scientist at VTT is working as a scientific leader and coordinator for key environmental initiatives and projects. She is also appointed Docent of  Environmental Technology at the Department of Agrotechnology, University of Helsinki.

Previously she has worked as group manager of VTT Environmental Biotechnology group. The Environmental Biotechnology group pioneered many  significant and successful projects in collaboration with other international and national parties (industry, EU, Tekes, Ministry of Agriculture,  Ministry of Environment, Universities).

Dr. Itävaara has lead research teams for more than 15 years. Due to her well focused and effective research she has been very successful in getting funding. She has initiated and managed 18 Finnish national technology projects (Tekes) and 2 Nordic projects as well as 6 EU projects and several confidential industry projects. She is a member of several scientific and professional committees and standardization bodies and has been actively involved in the development of new methods to prevent contamination of water and to improve recycling of biowastes. She has extensive experience on molecular methods and microbial ecology and has utilized these methods to understand environmental processes. Recently she is also working on geomicrobial processes and metagenomics in her new research field which deals with deep subsurface geobiochemistry and microbiology.

She has published 203 scientific publications (of which 49 in peer-reviewed international scientific journals and books) on several topics such as biodegradability of polymers, chemicals, persistant organic pollutants, organic wastes and ecotoxicology. In situ remediation technologies to clean up contaminated water and soils including molecular techniques, biosensors and remote sensing techniques has been part of her projects.

She has acted as a scientific technology evaluator for environmental technologies for industry, the Future Council of the Finnish Parliament and the Helsinki District Court.