Pekka Orponen is Professor of Computer Science at the Aalto University School of Science. He received his MSc and PhD degrees in Computer Science at the University of Helsinki in 1983 and 1986, respectively. After a postdoctoral period at the University of Toronto, he held assistant and associate professorships at the University of Helsinki, before moving first to the University of Jyväskylä (1996-2001), and then to the Helsinki University of Technology, now Aalto University (2001-present). He served as the founding Head of the Aalto Department of Information and Computer Science for 2008-2014, and then as Vice-Head for Research of the newly-established Aalto Department of Computer Science for 2015-2016.

His general research area is the theory and applications of algorithms, with specific research contributions spanning computational complexity theory, foundations of neural network and analog computation, stochastic algorithms and distributed sensor networks, and the computational theory and algorithmic design of nucleic acid nanostructures. His Nature 2015 article on the algorithmic design of 3D wireframe DNA nanostructures (joint with co-authors in his group and at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm) is currently listed as an ISI highly-cited paper (top 1% from its publication year in the areas of biology and biochemistry).

In addition to his academic activities, Pekka Orponen serves on the Supervisory Board of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, which is one of the largest private foundations in Europe, and on the Board of Informatics Europe, the association of European Computer Science departments. In the latter capacity, he is currently program committee co-chair of the association's annual meeting "European Computer Science Summit" in Gothenburg, 8-10 Oct 2018. He is also a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, and serves as the Chairman of the Academies' joint National Committee for Research Data, representing Finland in CODATA, the Data Committee of the International Council for Science.