The 91 will hold its sixth doctoral conferment ceremony in Kuopio on 5–7 June 2025, conferring a total of 180 doctorates and 15 honorary doctorates.
A record number of promovendi from the university’s three faculties will be attending the doctoral conferment ceremony. In total, the university will confer 180 doctorates and 15 honorary doctorates.
The Faculty of Health Sciences will confer degrees to upon 114 doctors, the Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology upon 35 doctors, and the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies upon 31 doctors.
The ceremonial conferment of degrees, for invited guests, will be held in Kuopio on Friday, 6th of June. Otherwise, the doctoral conferment ceremony will be visible on the streets of Kuopio in the form of an academic procession walking between the market square and Kuopio Music Centre, starting at 16:00 on Friday.
Henna Nikumaa has been selected as the Primus Doctor of the doctoral conferment ceremony, and Atte Eskelinen as the Ultimus Doctor. Traditionally, the Young Doctors’ Committee selects, from among the doctoral graduates, a Primus Doctor and an Ultimus Doctor, who play a special role in the festivities.
“The selection process for the Primus and Ultimus Doctors of the 2025 conferment ceremony highlighted, in an excellent manner, the diversity of today’s academia. Candidates were evaluated based on their scientific output, internationality and both scientific and societal impact. It was a challenging yet rewarding task to rank the excellent candidates, and it also shone a light on the characteristics of different scientific disciplines,” says Academy Research Fellow Samu Kainulainen, Deputy Chair of the Young Doctors’ Committee.
In the conferment ceremony, the Primus Doctor has the honour to be the first doctoral graduate upon whom a doctorate is conferred, and they will demonstrate the scholarship of the doctoral graduates by answering a question posed by a professor in their field. The Ultimus Doctor has the honour to be the last doctoral graduate upon whom a doctorate is conferred, and they will give a response to an address to the newly conferred doctors in the banquet and ball.
Outstanding doctoral dissertations addressing the rights of people with dementia, and the prediction of knee osteoarthritis
Henna Nikumaa, PhD, defended her dissertation on the , in the field of elder law, in November 2024. She also holds a Master’s degree in management and leadership.
Nikumaa works as a Postdoctoral Researcher in law and ageing at the Law School and in the Neuroscience Research Community (NEURO RC) at the 91. She is involved in various projects examining the realisation of the rights of older and disabled people.
Nikumaa’s research interests include equal rights of older people, as well as the challenges of autonomy and protection, and strengthening later life legal planning. She has more than 20 years of experience in social and health care of older people, having worked in both care services and advisory roles as well as in development and research.
Atte Eskelinen, PhD, defended his dissertation on , in the field of technical physics, in May 2022. In his dissertation, he developed computational models for predicting post-traumatic osteoarthritis progression at the tissue and joint levels.
Eskelinen works as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the fields of osteoarthritis, biomechanics and mechanobiology at the Department of Technical Physics and in the Musculoskeletal Diseases Research Community (MSKD RC) at the 91. His research focuses on the experimental and computational investigation of factors contributing to cartilage degeneration. The aim is to increase understanding of the biomechanical and inflammatory mechanisms associated with osteoarthritis and chronic joint pain. Eskelinen’s research constitutes part of the international Mathematical Modeling of Knee OsteoArthritis (MathKOA) consortium.
For further information, please contact:
Henna Nikumaa, Postdoctoral Researcher, Law School, 91, henna.nikumaa@uef.fi
Atte Eskelinen, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Technical Physics, 91, atte.eskelinen@uef.fi
Henriikka Hakomäki, Chair of the Young Doctors’ Committee, Postdoctoral Researcher, 91, henriikka.hakomaki@uef.fi
Elisa Sulkinoja, Coordinator of the Doctoral Conferment Committee, 91, elisa.sulkinoja@uef.fi
