News
Prizes awarded from the fund of Harry Elving at the Opening Ceremony for the Academic Year 2025–2026 at Åbo Akademi University
The following prizes and scholarships were awarded at the opening ceremony, from the fund of Harry Elving:
From the fund of Harry Elving, a prize of €3 000 for developing a positive working environment:
As Dean of the former Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology, Professor Peter Nynäs has done continuous and long-term work to develop the faculty’s activities in education and research. During his years as Dean, he successfully led the faculty’s activities. He is highly appreciated by both the administrative as well as the academic staff within the faculty. Nynäs has demonstrated good organizational skills, good self-awareness and humility as a leader, and he inspires and motivates his employees to achieve good results. He gets to grips with things and promotes an ethical and inclusive work environment. Collaboration and collegial support are the hallmarks of the entire field of activity within the faculty.
The prize may be used freely to develop the working conditions or the community at the workplace.
From the fund of Harry Elving, the teacher prize of €5 000 is awarded:
Acting Professor of Computer Engineering Jerker Björkqvist is a well-liked and committed teacher who not only passes on knowledge to students of information technology, but also skills that are invaluable in working life. He includes working methods such as entrepreneurship and teamwork in his teaching, which provides students with important skills for their future careers. Björkqvist has a large project portfolio related to the industry, through which he maintains his expertise in the latest technologies and current issues. He then successfully incorporates his experiences from the industry into his teaching.
From the fund of Harry Elving, two Supervisor of the Year prizes of €3 000 are awarded:
University Teacher in Developmental Psychology Maria Dahlberg is described as a supervisor who is outstanding at motivating the students. She is very structured and gives clear and concise feedback that moves the work forward. Dahlberg always takes time for the students and is positive and empathetic.
Senior University Lecturer in Political Science Henrik Serup Christensen is described as a supervisor who provides good information that forces students to think and solve problems independently and thus raises students’ self-esteem. There is a low threshold to contact him, and he is always friendly. “Good supervision from start to finish”
From the fund of Harry Elving, a prize of €5 000 is awarded to the pedagogical visionary and developer of the year:
Petra Grönholm-Nyman, University Lecturer in Psychology, is a caring and committed teacher who always prioritizes students’ learning first. She uses experimental teaching methods and encourages students to reflect on their own. She uses a particularly interactive and reflective learning method in her teaching to achieve the best possible learning outcomes for the students. Grönholm-Nyman has, among other things, developed teaching methods that encourage students to actively participate in teaching sessions.
Two research prizes of €6 000 are awarded from the fund of Harry Elving:
PhD (Pharm.) Jiaqi Yan for his doctoral thesis in drug development entitled Precision Therapeutics: Harnessing Receptor-targeted and Dynamic DNA Nanotechnology. The thesis, which was assessed with the grade Pass with honours, investigated a new medical treatment method that focuses on delivering drugs more precisely to cancer cells in the body. In traditional treatments, drugs can affect healthy cells and cause unnecessary side effects. Nanotechnology enables the creation of extremely small particles that can carry drugs directly to the cancer cells without harming the surrounding healthy cells. This makes the treatment more accurate and safer.
PhD Aleksandra Ianchenko for her doctoral dissertation in English language and literature entitled Estranging Trams: Atmospheres of Trams in Art. The dissertation, which was assessed with the grade Pass with honours, is multidisciplinary and combines, among other things, mobility research with art history, ethnography and artistic work. The most important scientific contribution of the thesis is the methodological experimentation, which has been described as: “one of the most innovative and surprising parts of the project.”
Two doctoral thesis supervisor prizes of €2 000 are awarded from the fund of Harry Elving:
The Rector has decided to award a prize for outstanding supervision of doctoral theses of 2 000 euros each to Professor Hongbo Zang and Professor Jason Finch.
Hongbo Zang served as supervisor for Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharmacy) Jiagi Yan and Jason Finch for Doctor of Philosophy Aleksandra Ianchenko. With these awards, Åbo Akademi University wants to draw attention to the importance of the principal supervisor’s contribution to a doctoral thesis.
From the fund of Harry Elving, a prize of €3 000 in recognition of notable popularization of new research and work for Åbo Akademi University’s awareness in society:
Senior Lecturer in Cultural Policy Analysis Blanka Henriksson and Professor Fredrik Nilsson have made a particularly great effort, partly to make both the humanities and Åbo Akademi University visible, and to show the creative opportunities that collaboration with an external body can contribute. Kunskapskabarén (The Knowledge Cabaret) is an entertaining and thought-provoking series of performances on different themes that have been realized in collaboration with Åbo Svenska Teater and performed in different locations in Swedish-speaking Finland.
