معرفی
Uku Vainik is a Professor of Behavioural Genetics at the University of Tartu’s Institute of Psychology (since June 2024), concurrently holding an adjunct professorship at the Montreal Neurological Institute. He also serves as an Associate Professor in Genomics at the Faculty of Science and Technology (since 2022). His career spans postdoctoral research at McGill University and extensive interdisciplinary projects on personality-psychopathology links, neurobehavioral mechanisms of obesity, and genetic influences on behavior.
Education: PhD in Psychology (2015) from University of Tartu, MA (2011) and BA (2008) in Psychology. He holds scholarships from the Kristjan Jaak Foundation, Erasmus Programme, and Estonian Research Council.
Research focuses on behavioral genetics, health psychology, and personality-environment interactions. Key projects include studying how personality traits predict mental health outcomes, obesity-related behaviors, and genetic contributions to migration patterns. He developed the ionr R package for psychometric analysis.
Awards include recognition for societal engagement (2023), best publication awards (2018, 2014), and national accolades for doctoral research (2015, 2013). Administrative roles include editorial board membership at Frontiers in Psychology and leadership in interdisciplinary doctoral programs.