Minna Palmroth

Minna Palmroth is Professor in Computational Space Physics at the University of Helsinki since 2017 and Director of the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Research of Sustainable Space (2018-2025). She previously held positions at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), including Research Professor (2013-2016) and Head of the Earth Observation Department (2011-2016). Her career includes competitive Academy of Finland roles (Post-doctoral researcher 2005-2008, Academy Research Fellow 2008-2013) and visiting scientist experience at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (2004).

Her research focuses on computational space physics and space weather, particularly the dynamics of near-Earth space influenced by solar wind. She is renowned for developing Vlasiator, a kinetic simulation tool for modeling plasma distribution functions in 6D position-velocity space, supported by two European Research Council grants (Starting Grant 2008-2013, Consolidator Grant 2016-2021). Her work requires massive computational resources, including 168 million CPU hours at the Finnish Centre of Scientific Computing and 190 million CPU hours from European PRACE Tier-0 projects.

Scientific awards and honors:

• J.V. Snellman Prize for outreach and communications (2022)
• Elected member of multiple prestigious academies (2018-2021)
• Väisälä Prize for scientific achievements (2016)
• ERC grants recipient (2008, 2016)