Ari Helenius

Ari Helenius (born 3 September 1944) is a Finnish emeritus professor of biochemistry who is known for his research in virology.

Ari Helenius (ca. 2010)

Personal life

Helenius was born 3 September 1944 in Oulu, Finland.^[1]

Career

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.^[1][2] In 1997, he joined the ETH Zurich as a founding member of the Institute of Biochemistry.^[3]

His research has earned him awards for the characterization of how viruses enter cells, and methods of protein folding and assembly.^[2] 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^[2]
• 1992 Lamb Professorship of Molecular Pathogenesis at the Vanderbilt University
• 1992 NICHD Lectureship in Cell Biology des National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), USA
• 1993 Honorary Professor of Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest
• 1995 AI Virtanen Prize in Biochemistry
• 1997 Spinoza Visiting Professorship at the University of Amsterdam
• 2001 Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• 2002 Member of the Academia Europaea^[4]
• 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^[5]
• 2008 Van Deenen Medal for leading research on biomembranes^[6]
• 2009 Elected Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences^[7]
• 2010 Otto Warburg Medal from the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• 2010 Elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology^[8]
• 2010 Bijvoet Medal of the Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research at Utrecht University^[9]
• 2011 Heinrich Pette Lecture of the Heinrich Pette Institute^[10]
• 2012 Keith R. Porter Lecture
• 2016 Loeffler-Frosch Medal of the Society of Virology