email: ilkkahavukkala@oocities.com
Born 23. Sept. 1953 in Helsinki, Finland.
Nationality: Finland
Marital status: marrried, wife Jia-Xin ZOU (Chinese)
Mother tongue Finnish. High school education in Finland.
SCIENTIFIC TRAINING AND DEGREES
1972-78:
Undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Finland at the
University of Helsinki, in the Faculty of Natural Sciences: main
subject Zoology, others Genetics, General Microbiology, Chemistry,
Biochemistry and Botany; in the Faculty of Agriculture and
Forestry: Agricultural Zoology.
Degrees: 1975 B.Sc. (Zoology)
1976 M.Sc. (Zoology)
1978 Licentiate (Zoology)
1977-1980:
Ph.D.-studies at the Univ. London, Imperial College of Science and
Technology. Research theme: insect behaviour and orientation.
Degree: 1981 Ph.D. (Zoology) Univ. London and Diploma of
Imperial College (D.I.C.)
1984:
Appointed as Docent of Zoology (part-time lectureship) at Univ.
Helsinki, Dept. of Zoology.
1987: at University of Kuopio, Finland: Biotechnology training
course (8 months).
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1975-78: at Univ. Helsinki, Finland (Entomology research)
Light and humidity reactions of the pine weevil, Hylobius abietis.
Thesis work under Prof. Vilho Perttunen.
1977-80: At Univ. London, England (Entomology research)
Behaviour and orientation mechanisms of beetles. Ph.D.-work under
Prof. John S. Kennedy in Silwood Park, Imperial College.
1981-86: At Agricultural Res. Centre, Finland (Biocontrol research)
c/o Prof. Martti Markkula, Dept. Pest Investigation. Host-plant
selection behaviour and non-chemical control of vegetable root
pests, mainly cabbage, onion and carrot root flies. Use of Bacillus
thuringiensis as a biocontrol agent against cabbage root flies.
1985: At Michigan state University, Dept. Entomology, East
Lansing, USA. As adjunct visiting professor. Joint work with Prof.
J.R. Miller. Host plant selection behaviour of onion flies.
1987-88: At Kemira Co. Res. Centre, Finland (Biocontrol research)
c/o Dr. Timo Tormala, Div. Biology. Development of
entomopathogenic fungi for pest control: strain screening,
pathogenicity tests and enzyme assays.
1988: At Tokyo Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biology, Japan
(Biotechnology training and research)
Training in molecular biology techniques at the laboratory of Prof.
Tairo Oshima; the laboratory is especially strong in Archaebacteria
research.
1988-91: At National Institute of Agrobiological Resources (NIAR),
Tsukuba, Japan. (Molecular Biology research)
c/o Dr. Tadaaki Hibi, Dept. Appl. Physiology. Molecular biology of
insect pathogenic fungi; isolation and characterization of the
chitinase enzyme from Beauveria bassiana.
1991-96: At National Institute of Agrobiological Resources (NIAR),
Tsukuba, Japan. (Biotechnology and Bioinformatics research)
Informatics and database management in the Rice Genome Research
Program (RGP, a project of the Society for Techno-innovation
of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries = S.T.A.F.F., a
semi-governmental R & D organization).
My work in the Rice Genome Research Program involved DNA sequence analysis research and data management, international relations, electronic networking, bioinformatics, database work, editing an international bulletin (called Rice Genome), organizing scientific meetings etc. Representative of RGP in the Commission on Plant Gene Nomenclature, set up by the International Society of Plant Molecular Biology, c/o Carl Price, Waksman Institute, Rutgers, USA). I implemented and managed the Rice Genome Research Program WWW server (URL is http://www.staff.or.jp).
1996--: At Genesis R&D Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand.
Bioinformatics group leader in a forest tree genome project.
EMPLOYERS AND MAIN FUNDERS
1975 Academy of Finland: assistant researcher
1977 Univ. Helsinki, Dept. Zoology (Finland): assistant
1978-80 Ph.D. Scholarship from Oskari Huttunen Foundation,
Finland
1981-86 Academy of Finland: research assistant & junior
researcher
1987-88 Kemira Co.: visiting research scientist
1988 Agric. Res. Center (Finland), Dept. Pest Investigation:
researcher
1988-89 Academy of Finland: postdoctoral biotechnology
trainee (Japan)
1990 Scholarship from Ciba-Geigy Foundation for the
Promotion of Science (Japan)
1990-91 Science and Technology Agency Fellowship (Japan)
1991-9g Society for Techno-Innovation in Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries (S.T.A.F.F., MAFF, Japan):
researcher (informatics)
1996- Genesis R&D Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand
SPECIAL SKILLS: Languages: Finnish, English, Swedish, German, French, Japanese. Learn languages quickly. Have teached in English and Japanese on Finnish culture at Tsukuba University in Japan. Translating and editing scientific texts (especially English) and managing scientific journal publication. Editorial secretary of the quarterly journal Annales Entomologici Fennici 1982-1985. Technical and language editor of the newsletter RICE GENOME 1992- (published twice a year by the Japanese Rice Genome Research Program). Extensive refereeing and manuscript editing for several international and Japanese scientific journals, reviewer of USDA/NRICGP Competitive Grant Proposals (Insects/Nematodes Program). Familiarity with use of computers: statistical and graphics software packages, VAX/VMS operating system, Macintosh use, AppleTalk and Ethernet LAN networks, Sun/Unix, Familiar with molecular biology software, CD-ROM database searches, Internet e-mail and networking, gopher, ENTREZ etc. information retrieval and desktop publishing, various sequence analysis systems (DNASIS, GCG, BLAST, BLITZ etc.), RDBMS using 4th Dimension etc. PERL and cgi-bin scripts. Getting along with people from different countries and cultures. Current interests: Analysis and collation of cDNA information from large international sequencing projects, including protein motif and domain searches, ACRs (ancient conserved regions) etc. Standardization of plant gene names, interoperability of plant genome databases. Cooperative genome research management in a multinational setting. Hobbies: Asian culture, banana labels, cultural entomology.