He did his PhD with
Kai Simons at the
University of Helsinki in 1973. From 1975 until 1981 he worked as a staff scientist at the newly created
European Molecular Biology Laboratory. From 1981 to 1997, he was a professor at
Yale University, where he was chair of the department of
cell biology from 1992 to 1997. His research has earned him awards for the characterization of how viruses enter cells, and methods of
protein folding and assembly. In 1999, he was appointed a member of the
European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).
Awards • 1973 Komppa Prize for the best doctoral thesis in chemistry in Finland • 1991 and 1992
Humboldt Research Award • 2003
Schleiden Medal of the Leopoldina • 2003 Foreign Member of the
Finnish Academy of Sciences • 2003
Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine, together with Reinhard G. Lührmann (Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen) • 2007
Order of the White Rose of Finland from the Finnish government • 2007
Marcel Benoist Prize • 2008 Van Deenen Medal for leading research on biomembranes • 2009 Elected Foreign Associate of the
National Academy of Sciences • 2010
Otto Warburg Medal from the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology • 2010 Elected fellow of the
American Academy of Microbiology • 2010 Bijvoet Medal of the
Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research at
Utrecht University • 2011 Heinrich Pette Lecture of the
Heinrich Pette Institute • 2012
Keith R. Porter Lecture • 2016 Loeffler-Frosch Medal of the Society of Virology == References ==