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She takes over from Professor Jyrki Wallenius. Hölttä-Otto serves as chair from 1 July to 31 December 2017 - that is, through the end of the Council’s current term.

Katja Hölttä-Otto serves as Professor (Associate Professor) of Product Development at the School of Engineering. Her topics of research include product development methods, engineer education, and system architecture. Katja has worked at Aalto University for two years. Before that she served as a professor in the United States at the University of Massachusetts, where she, in addition to research, developed multidisciplinary courses. Katja has also been involved in establishing a multidisciplinary university in Singapore in collaboration with MIT.

‘The greatest strength of Aalto University is its multidisciplinary nature. I am a supporter of co-creation, and as my first action after the holiday season I plan to listen to the expectations and hopes of all the various parties. Everyone is needed at the university, and without students and professors we are not a university. A survey of professors that was commissioned earlier at Aalto gives an indication of things to work on. In support of more collaborative leadership, I already expressed a wish to the coming President that matters should be brought before the Professors' Council as soon as they have been raised', Hölttä-Otto says.

Jyrki Wallenius served as the chair from 2014. 'In my term we increased our cooperation with the university's Management Team. I believe that the culture has become more open to discussion. I would like to thank my active professor colleagues and the management team for their good cooperation. At the same time I hope that more professors would be actively involved in building our university. I wish Katja the best possible success and good fortune in this position of trust’, Wallenius says.

The Professors' Council acts as an advisory body for the president and vice presidents and ensures that the voice of the academic science and art community is heard on essential issues related to the values of the university. The Professors’ Council plans and decides on its operation and working methods on its own, selects the chairman and vice chairman of the council and a working committee for coordinating the operation.