Iiris Hovatta (born 31 December 1970 in

Espoo Espoo (, ; ) is a city in Finland. It is located to the west of the capital, Helsinki, in southern Uusimaa. The population is approximately . It is the most populous Municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. Espoo is part of the Helsi ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

) is a Finnish

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic process ...

and

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, Biological neural network, neural circuits, and glia, and their Behavior, behavioral, biological, and psycholo ...

, specializing in

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...

genomics Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of molecular biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, ...

behavioral neuroscience Behavioral neuroscience, also known as biological psychology, biopsychology, or psychobiology,Psychobi ...

, and

biological psychiatry Biological psychiatry or biopsychiatry is an approach to psychiatry that aims to understand mental disorder in terms of the biology, biological function of the nervous system. It is interdisciplinary in its approach and draws on sciences such as ...

. She is professor of

behavioral genetics Behavioural genetics, also referred to as behaviour genetics, is a field of scientific research that uses genetic methods to investigate the nature and origins of individual differences in behaviour. While the name "behavioural genetics" c ...

at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

, Finland.

Education and career

Hovatta obtained her MSc in genetics from the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Biosciences, in 1994, under the supervision of

Leena Peltonen-Palotie Leena Peltonen-Palotie (16 June 1952 – 11 March 2010) was a Finnish geneticist who contributed to the identification of 15 genes for Finnish heritage diseases, including arterial hypertension, schizophrenia, lactose intolerance, arthrosi ...

. She completed her PhD in medical genetics at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Medicine, in 1998, with a thesis entitled "Molecular Genetics of Familial Schizophrenia and PLO-SL," supervised by Leena Peltonen-Palotie and Jouko Lönnqvist. In 2006, she earned the title of docent in medical

molecular biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

at the University of Helsinki. From 2017 she held the position of

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

neurogenomics Neurogenomics is the study of how the genome of an organism influences the development and function of its nervous system. This field intends to unite functional genomics and neurobiology in order to understand the nervous system as a whole from a ...

at the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, becoming a

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

of behavioral genetics in the Department of Psychology and Logopedics at the Faculty of Medicine in 2018. She currently serves as a councilor on the Executive Committee o the

European College of Neuropsychopharmacology The European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) is a pan-European, non-profit scientific association that serves as a platform to exchange and promote research in the field of neuropsychopharmacology. The ECNP “is committed to ensuring t ...

(ECNP) for the 2022-2025 term, and was a member of the Scientific Program Committee of th
35th ECNP Congress 2022

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hovatta, Iiris Living people 1970 births Finnish geneticists Finnish neuroscientists University of Helsinki alumni Academic staff of the University of Helsinki Finnish women scientists