awards
34
finnish cultural foundation
annual report 2013–2014
Awards for outstanding
cultural achievements
Academy Professor
Howard T. Jacobs
“To the explainer of ageing, maestro of molecules”
ACADEMY
Professor Howard T. Jacobs (b. 1955) is Professor of
Molecular Biology at the BioMediTech institute at the University
of Tampere and Director of the Academy of Finland Centre of
Excellence FinnMIT. His research focuses on mitochondria, the
cells’ energy centres, and on the role of mitochondrial dysfunction
in the pathogenesis of diseases.
PROFESSOR
Jacobs is an uncompromising researcher of basic
biological phenomena, whose research helps us to understand,
especially, the background and causes of diseases related to
ageing. Mitochondrial dysfunction can also have an effect on the
pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. His research
teamuses disease models to investigate mitochondrial dysfunction
and the potential of gene therapy.
PROFESSOR
Jacobs has actively promoted the internationalisation of
the Finnish scientific community by putting his whole personality
on the line. He is an ardent member of the international research
community in scientific associations, editorial boards and other
positions of trust. He is an active science writer and a science
policy commentator. There is probably no other top-level scientist
who has moved to Finland from abroad and who has had such a
positive impact on the Finnish scientific community for so long.
Journalist
Ilkka Malmberg
“For insightful in-depth journalism, respect for his readers”
ILKKA
Malmberg (b. 1954) is a journalist on Finland’s leading daily,
Helsingin Sanomat. His core competence consists of press articles
requiring lengthy preparation and observation. Their dramatic
span may cover years and even decades. He is an outstanding
example of the power of slow, meaningful journalism at a time
when one-click editing chasing flash-in-the-pan reader records
is increasingly the order of the day.
IN
his choice of topics Ilkka Malmberg is often driven by curiosity
and a willingness to penetrate outside his comfort zone. In
researching his stories he has travelled across Europe with a
foul-mouthed lorry driver and listened for weeks on end to
contemporary Finnish music in an attempt to understand it.
ILKKA
Malmberg is, he says, a journalist 24 hours a day, always
spotting possible topics in the world around him. Not even the
tiniest slip of an idea or a single person is too insignificant for a
story. Malmberg writes broad reportages about history and society
at grass-root level yet with an excellent overall grasp.
Dance artist
Kaari Martin
“For clicking Nordic heels, the triumph of Finnish flamenco”
KAARI
Martin (b. 1972) is a Finnish flamenco dancer and
choreographer. She has renewed flamenco tradition open-
mindedly and in a manner that has attracted admiration not only
in Finland but also in Spain, the birthplace of flamenco. In 2012,
for example, her group won first prize in all the categories open
to a solo choreography in the world’s most important flamenco
choreography competition.
KAARI
Martin had dreams of becoming a concert pianist until, at
the age of 16, she saw the film Blood Wedding directed by Carlos
Saura. This sparked off her interest in flamenco, and she began
taking lessons straight away. In the course of her career she has
studied both in Finland and Spain, where her teachers have been
top international names in the world of flamenco.
THE
Compañía Kaari & Roni Martin is one of the foremost
contemporary flamenco groups outside Spain and its works have
toured twelve countries. It has brought a Nordic perspective to
the Andalusian dance and expanded the narrative themes of
flamenco to include such topics as the Finnish national epic The
Kalevala, Pippi Longstocking and the Sibelius Violin Concerto. At
the centre, however, is always uncompromising artistic expression
in which dance and music merge as one. Kaari Martin is a bold,
open-minded artist who breaks boundaries and is constantly
creating something new.
IN
addition to her work as a dancer and choreographer Kaari Martin
has taught at the Theatre Academy Helsinki, the ballet school of
the Finnish National Opera and elsewhere in Finland and abroad.
EUR 30,000
