Pictured from left: Mervi Puska, Tarja Tanner, Maria Kassapidou (Sweden) and Foteini Machla (Greece).
The 6th of December marks 100 years of independence for Finland. The theme for the celebratory year is “Together,” showing that everyone – Finns and friends of Finns – is welcome to take part, just as creating and building the nation were joint efforts.
Of the four guest scientists staying with NIOM at the moment, two are from Finland and they led the celebration today at the institute.
Dr. Mervi Puska, a polymer chemist, is an adjunct professor at the Department of Biomaterials Science, University of Turku, Finland. She has developed experimental composites that contain bioactive components and will stay at NIOM until the year ends to test the mechanical properties in further development of these components.
Tarja Tanner, who is a post doc researcher at the Department of Cariology at the University of Oulo and a clinical dentist at the public dental clinic in Vaasa works at mapping and comparing clinical decisions in clinical practices in Finland and Norway.
The purpose of NIOM´s visiting scientist program is to enhance Nordic collaboration on dental biomaterials research. Scientists in the field of biomaterials with funding from other institutions are welcome to work at NIOM for longer or shorter periods in order to collaborate with NIOM staff. NIOM maintains the laboratory facilities and may support direct research expenses. The programme for each calendar year is advertised in May of the year before, with application deadline in June.
