Rate My Professor Sarah Butcher

Sarah Butcher is Professor of Microbiology in the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Helsinki, where she also serves as Vice-Dean for research, infrastructure, space, and internationalisation, with responsibilities including deputy to the Dean and facilities management since July 2025. She earned a BSc in Applied Biology from the University of Bath in 1989 and a PhD from Birkbeck College, University of London in 1995, focusing on enveloped virus structures at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg. Following postdoctoral work on human cytomegalovirus at the MRC Virology Unit in Glasgow in 1996 and at the University of Helsinki from 1999, she established her independent research group in 2001, pioneering cryogenic electron microscopy in Finland that year. Her career includes roles as Research Director at the Institute of Biotechnology since 2013, Professor of Structural Biology from 2008 to 2013, head of the Structural Biology and Biophysics Programme from 2014 to 2018, leader of the Division of General Microbiology until restructuring, and vice-leader of the Molecular and Integrative Biosciences Research Programme. She has supervised PhD students since 2001, served on boards for graduate programmes in informational and structural biology and integrative life sciences, and contributed to committees such as Biocenter Finland Structural Biology Board from 2008 to 2016.