Otso Ovaskainen

Professor Otso Ovaskainen holds a permanent position at the University of Helsinki, where he serves as Research Director in the Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Program. He is also a Visiting Professor at a Norwegian Centre of Excellence since 2014.

• Supervisor in the Doctoral Programme in Wildlife Biology
• Established the Research Center for Ecological Change (REC) with 60+ members
• ERC Starting Grant recipient (2008-2013)

Research Interests: Ovaskainen bridges mathematical theory with empirical ecology, focusing on metapopulation dynamics, movement ecology, and statistical community ecology. His work integrates:

• Ecological theory with data
• Individual-based modeling
• Fungal community dynamics
• Probabilistic taxonomic placement
• Environmental DNA analysis
• Multi-species movement modeling

Scientific Leadership: He has led major projects including the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Metapopulation Research (2015-2017) and the LIFEPLAN biodiversity inventory project (2020-2026). His HMSC modeling framework remains a benchmark in joint species distribution modeling.