Anssi Peuronen, PhD, was appointed Adjunct Professor by Rector’s decision on January 12, 2021. We interviewed him with three questions:

1. What is your specialty in the field of inorganic chemistry and what interests you the most?

My interest lies in structural research and the study of how the information of the exact atomic structure of a compound/material as well as its organisation in the solid state can be utilised to understand and predict its properties and used in the design of new functional materials. In particular, I focus on the study of crystalline materials using X-ray crystallography, albeit other methods such as NMR, mass spectrometry, and computational chemistry are also important in my research. My current research topics include ion-selective supramolecular compounds, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and catalytically active compounds wherein determining the exact atomic structure is often particularly important.

2. How did you end up in Turku?

I am originally from an area called Pohjanmaa (Ostrobothnia), but I attended a university for the first time in Jyväskylä, Department of Chemistry, in the early 2000s. After graduating with a master’s degree (2009), I worked at the University of Jyväskylä’s Department of Chemistry as an Assistant and later as a University Teacher and a Doctoral student. My dissertation on Inorganic and Analytical chemistry was completed in 2014, after which I worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in a project funded by the Academy of Finland (2014–2018) in the research group of Manu Lahtinen and as a visiting researcher in the research group of Professor Kari Rissanen. I joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Turku with the help of postdoctoral funding granted by the Academy of Finland in 2018. While working in Turku, I paid a 6-month research visit to the University of Sheffield, in Professor Lee Brammer‘s research group. After my postdoctoral term, I will continue in the Inorganic Materials Chemistry research group as a University Teacher.

3. What do you tend to do in your free time?

I spend my free time with my two kids and by planning home renovation projects. Consuming music and producing music-like sounds as well as outdoor activities, fishing, and dreaming of a classic car are my favourite hobbies.