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Chief Executive Officer Tapani Järvinen's Environmental Technology Fund has awarded Professor Ulla Lassi a grant of €10 000 in recognition of her activities as an environmental technology expert.

Ulla Lassi D.Sc. (Tech) has been Professor of Applied Chemistry and Process Chemistry at the University of Oulu / Kokkola University Consortium Chydenius since 2006. Her extensive areas of competence cover sustainable development, environmental technology and new forms of energy.

In recent years, Lassi has actively studied the chemical behaviour of lithium-ion batteries and alternative materials in battery applications.

‘In addition to new battery chemicals, research is also being carried out on new battery cell manufacturing technologies which would make it possible to manufacture and recycle batteries in a safer and more environmentally friendly manner,’ Lassi explains.

Ulla Lassi has been actively engaged in research cooperation with leading companies in the field for over ten years. Her teaching and research activities have also played an important role in Kokkola industrial park, which produces cobalt, zinc, sulphuric acid and hydrogen, and in the future will produce lithium as well.

During her career, Lassi has supervised 16 doctoral dissertations and over 80 master's theses. She has published over 100 scientific articles in peer-reviewed scientific publications. She has been awarded also earlier, as Science Communicator of the Year and with Keskipohjanmaa foundation prize for her scientific merits and activities.

Fund promotes utilisation of research results

The purpose of the Environmental Technology Fund grant is to promote industrial environmental technology research and the utilisation of research results to produce technology products and services.  Each year, it allocates a grant to a distinguished expert for their research and development work in the field.

The Tapani Järvinen Fund, named after the retired CEO of Outotec plc, was established by the Board of the Aalto University School of Technology in 2009, and its endowment capital was donated by Outotec plc. With this grant, the fund is contributing towards strengthening environmental technology research into metal manufacturing and process technology at the Aalto University School of Chemical Engineering, thus boosting the international competitiveness of Finnish industry.