Ilya Usoskin

Professor Ilya Usoskin's research interests include cosmic rays, heliospheric physics, solar physics, space climate, geophysics and the Earth's magnetic field. He is an expert in a wide range of topics, including the impact of outer-space factors on the Earth’s environment. Through his extensive research collaborations, Usoskin is also involved in such topics as radiocarbon dating in search for traces of historical solar storms or how the Earth's atmosphere cleanses itself of atmospheric pollution.

Usoskin graduated in 1988 with a Master's degree in space physics from Leningrad Polytechnic, and received his Cand.Sci. degree in 1995 and PhD in space physics from the University of Oulu in 2000. Usoskin worked as a post doc researcher at INFN (Milan) from 1997 to 1999 and as head of the Oulu cosmic ray station since 2000.

Professor Usoskin is an expert in a wide range of scientific communities, being, e.g., Vice President of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and member of the C4 Commission (Astroparticle Physics) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). He is the recipient of several awards, including the 1st Class Knight of the Order of the Lion of Finland (2013), the Julius Bartels Medal of the European Geosciences Union (2018), the University of Oulu Award for Outstanding Contribution to Research (2018), and the ISEE Award (Japan, 2020).

Usoskin has been awarded several research grants at national and European level, the largest and most prestigious being the ERC synergy grant GERACLE (2025--2031) and the National Centre of Excellence ReSoLVE (2014--2029).