Rate My Professor Maarit Karppinen

Maarit Karppinen is Aalto Distinguished Professor of Inorganic Materials Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Materials Science, School of Chemical Engineering, at Aalto University. She received her Master's degree in Engineering and Technology from Helsinki University of Technology in 1987, Licentiate degree in 1990, and Doctoral degree in inorganic chemistry in 1993. Following her doctorate, Karppinen worked at Tokyo Institute of Technology from 2001 to 2006 as Associate Professor, building a research group on functional oxide materials for energy technologies. In 2006, she returned to Aalto University to lead the Inorganic Materials Chemistry group. She served as Head of the Department of Chemistry from 2008 to 2014, Academy Professor from 2009 to 2013, Visiting International Professor at Ruhr-University Bochum in 2016, and was appointed Aalto Distinguished Professor in 2017. Her accolades include ERC Advanced Grants in 2013 and 2023, ERC Proof-of-Concept Grants in 2015 and 2017, the Helsinki City Science Award in 2015, and the First Class Knight of the Order of the White Rose of Finland in 2011. Recently, she was appointed to the European Research Council Scientific Council starting in 2025.

Karppinen's research pioneers functional inorganic-organic hybrid materials synthesized via atomic/molecular layer deposition (ALD/MLD) and other advanced techniques like ultra-high-pressure methods, targeting applications in sustainable energy technologies such as high-Tc superconductors, thermoelectrics, spintronics, fuel cells, batteries, and oxygen storage. She has published over 400 peer-reviewed articles, accumulating more than 17,000 citations. Notable publications include "Saturation of superconductivity in cuprates overdoped with high-pressure oxygen: Phase diagram with YBa2Cu3O7+δ, δ → 1" in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2026), "Amido-Amine Co(II) Precursor-Based Atomic/Molecular Layer Deposition Processes for Cobalt-Organic Thin Films and Their Thermal Conversion to CoO Thin Films" in Advanced Materials Technologies (2026), "Atomic layer deposition of zinc oxide films on lateral high-aspect-ratio test structures using diethylzinc and water as precursors" in Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A (2026), and "Area-selective atomic/molecular layer deposition via block copolymer approach: Zn-benzene dithiol deposition as a case study" in Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A (2025). Karppinen has given 13 invited talks, served on 13 conference committees, and holds 4 editorial positions, underscoring her influence in materials chemistry.