Podcast series: An Interview with Honorary Doctor

An Interview with Honorary Doctors is a podcast series, in which we will get to know the honorary doctors of the 11th Doctoral Conferment Ceremony held in 2022. The conversations will cover interesting stories about the life and achievements of the guests and their connections to the University of Oulu.

Podcast-series is published in University of Oulu's Spotify account. The episodes will be in English or Finnish depending on the guest.
Promootiojuhla

The Episodes of the Podcast

1. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Risto Murto

In the first episode, the rector Jouko Niinimäki interviews Risto Murto, who serves as the CEO of Varma and has been a board member at the University of Oulu. The interview is in Finnish.

2. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Sandra Thompson

Second episode focuses on professor Sandra Thompson, who is an internationally recognized pioneer in interactional linguistics and an expert in functional linguistics. Besides regenerating linguistics both theoretically and methodologically, Thompson has documented many endangered and already extinct languages such as Wappo that was spoken in Northern San Francisco until 1990.

3. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Liisa Hyssälä

In the third episode of the podcast, we get to know Liisa Hyssälä, Senior Advisor of the Finnish Innovation Fund SITRA. During her successful career Hyssälä has worked for example in the university, as an entrepreneur and as a politician. The interview is in Finnish.

4. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Sir Peter Ratcliffe

In the 4th episode of An Interview with Honorary Doctor podcast physician-scientist, Professor Sir Peter Ratcliffe tells about his successful career and its highlights. Nobel Laureate Sir Ratcliffe gives also useful tips for young researchers in building a successful career in science.

5. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Paula Vanninen

In the 5th episode of An Interview with Honorary Doctor we will get to know Paula Vanninen and her fascinating career more closely. Vanninen is currently working as a Director of VERIFIN, Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention. In this interview Vanninen will tell us about VERIFIN, and her work and achievements while working at the institute. The interview is in Finnish.

6. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Eero Eloranta

In the 6th episode of Interview with Honorary Doctor podcast, we will get to know Professor Emeritus Eero Eloranta and his notable life’s work within industrial engineering and management. In this interview Eloranta tells how the field of industrial engineering and management has developed within time. The interview is in Finnish.

7. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Annette Scheunpflug

The guest of the 7th episode of An Interview with Honorary Doctor is Professor Annette Scheunpflug who is an internationally recognized educational researcher. In the interview she talks about her international research career and methods of collaboration.

8. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Mauri Ylä-Kotola

The guest in the 8th episode of the podcast An Interview with Honorary Doctor is Mauri Ylä-Kotola, Professor and Former Rector of University of Lapland. In this interview Ylä-Kotola will tell us how he has developed media science into a science that focuses on designing the future of media. The interview is in Finnish.

9. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Jeremy B. Searle

The guest of the 9th episode of An Interview with Honorary Doctor podcast is Professor Jeremy B. Searle, who acts also as the Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University in USA. Searle is an internationally established scientist in the field of evolutionary biology. He conducts research related to the evolutionary biology of animals and studies the interface of animal evolution and human history.

10. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Mats Paulsson

The guest of the 10th episode of An Interview with the Honorary Doctor podcast is professor emeritus Mats Paulsson, a long-time Director of the Biochemistry Institute II of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Cologne. Paulsson is an internationally recognized tissue researcher, who has led several large research consortia and held numerous academic positions of trust.

11. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Aarno Palotie

In the 11th episode of Interview with Honorary Doctor podcast we will get to know University of Oulu alumn Professor Aarno Palotie and his notable life’s work within human genetics. He is a professor and group leader in the University of Helsinki, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and in Massachusetts General Hospital. The interview is in Finnish.

12. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Eva Liljeblom

The guest of the 12th episode of An Interview with Honorary Doctor podcast is Professor Eva Liljeblom from Oulu, who is one of the leading researchers in finance in Finland. In addition to her extensive scientific career, she has held numerous supervisory, expert, and administrative roles. The interview is in Finnish.

13. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: John McGrath

The guest of the 13th episode of An Interview with Honorary Doctor is Professor John Joseph McGrath, one of the world’s leading researchers of schizophrenia. In this interview, McGrath talks about his interesting and successful research career during which he has focused on the epidemiology of schizophrenia and risk factors for psychoses.

14. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Henning Schulzrinne

The guest of the 14th episode of the podcast is Henning Schulzrinne, the Levi Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University in New York. Schulzrinne has made fundamental and pioneering contributions to key protocols used in Internet multimedia applications. In the interview, Schulzrinne tells about his research work and describes the greatest challenges in Internet research.

15. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Eli Amir

In the 15th episode of An Interview with Honorary Doctor podcast, we get to know Eli Amir who acts as a Professor of Finance at the University of Tel Aviv. Amir is an internationally recognized researcher known for his contributions to the field of financial reporting and capital markets. In this interview, Eli Amir talks about his international academic career, research work, and plans for future.

16. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Tapani Mäkikyrö

The guest of the 16th episode of An Interview with Honorary Doctor is MSc (Tech) Tapani Mäkikyrö, who is an active and recognized professional in the field of civil engineering. Mäkikyrö’s contribution has been essential in the retrieval of civil engineering education back to the University of Oulu, as well as in developing new curriculum and external relations of this new degree program. The interview is in Finnish.

17. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Reid Hoffman

The guest of the 17th episode of An Interview with Honorary Doctor is an internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author Reid Hoffman. As an investor Hoffman aspires to recognize businesses that have potential to bring something fundamentally new to human life and society.

You can also watch the episode in Youtube.

18. An Interview with Honorary Doctor: Helena Petäistö

The guest of the last episode of the series is an Oulu-based journalist and non-fiction writer Helena Petäistö. Petäistö’s principle as a journalist is the former motto of Financial Times: “Without favour, without fear!”. Indeed, she was fearless when succeeding to get a promise from the Soviet Union’s president Mihail Gorbatšov that Finland can apply EU membership – an incident which Petäistö describes as the highlight of her journalist career.

You can also watch the episode in Youtube.