Jouko Väänänen (b. 1950) completed his doctorate in 1977 in Manchester. In 1983 he was appointed assistant professor of mathematics at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Helsinki and in 1999 to tenured professor, a position he held until his retirement in 2018. Currently, Väänänen continues to work at the department as research director.

Väänänen’s research has focused on set theory and several different subfields within logic. In his work, he has achieved significant results in questions related to model theory, set theory and, in a broader sense, the foundations of mathematics. In the MathSciNet database, 128 publications and 830 citations by Väänänen have been registered. In recent years, dependency logic has been one of Väänänen’s most important research themes. He has significantly developed the theory of dependency logic and published a popular monograph on the subject. In 2021, Väänänen was awarded an ERC advanced grant for research in dependency logic and application of the research to e.g. team semantics, quantum logic and set theory. Väänänen is an active member of the international logic community and its organizations and has spoken at several important conferences in the field.

In Finland, Väänänen has carried out pioneering work to develop his research branches both at the University of Helsinki and throughout the country. His contribution has been central to the emergence of the currently active Finnish research groups in logic and set theory. Väänänen has had 20 doctoral students, many of whom are currently working as professors.

The Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation Prize in Mathematics, 20,000 €.