I began my studies in 1993 at the age of 19, after which I have not left the University’s sphere of influence for more than a year at a time. It should then be clear that along the way I have had great moments as a student, researcher and teacher.

From my student days I remember the activities of the Siula student organisation. Some of themes for the parties we organised included the Eurovision Song Contest and Finnhits, a collection of popular Finnish songs from the 1970s and the 1980s. The band responsible for the music at the parties was composed of university students of Finnish. I also played for the band, and as I recall there were brief moments when we sounded pretty good.

I began my research career as an assistant in a research team led by professor Pentti Leino. The communal nature of research became clear to me then, and I probably would never have become a researcher myself had it not been for that experience. The stereotype of research as lonely drudgery somewhere in the bowels of the university turned out to be a series of gatherings and common goals. In other words, something much more inspiring than I had thought.

I have also been a teacher for over 15 years. There have been so many good experiences with teaching that it is impossible for me to single out any particular one. I have had the pleasure of working with people from all around the world. In particular I enjoy supervising. It allows me to help motivated people develop their ideas.