biology

Ilkka Hanski

Ilkka Hanski is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ilkka Hanski rather than just read about it. In short: Ilkka Aulis Hanski (14 February 1953 – 10 May 2016) was a Finnish ecologist at the University of Helsinki, Finland. The Metapopulation Research Center led by Hanski, until his death, has been nominated as a Center of Excellence by the Academy of Finland.

Key takeaways

Ilkka Hanski belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ilkka Hanski to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ilkka Hanski from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ilkka Aulis Hanski (14 February 1953 – 10 May 2016) was a Finnish ecologist at the University of Helsinki, Finland. The Metapopulation Research Center led by Hanski, until his death, has been nominated as a Center of Excellence by the Academy of Finland. The group studies species living in fragmented landscapes and attempts to advance metapopulation ecology research. Hanski proposed the core-satellite hypothesis of species distributions. Metapopulation ecology itself studies populations of plants and animals which are separated in space by occupying patches.

Career

Ilkka Hanski took his bachelor's degree and Licentiate's degree in the University of Helsinki in 1976 and Doctoral degree from the University of Oxford in 1979. Hanski was a graduate student in Oxford from 1976 to 1979. He was appointed as a docent in the University of Helsinki in 1981 and in the University of Joensuu in 1983. He worked in the Academy of Finland from 1978 to 1988 as well as from 1991 to 1992. He worked as an acting professor of zoology in the University of Helsinki from 1988 to 1991, and was appointed (full) professorship of zoology in 1993. Hanski served as an Academy Professor for the Academy of Finland from 1996 until his death. In 2000, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The central questions of metapopulation biology studies by Hanski have several practical applications. For example, understanding biodiversity and population variability is essential for practical work in conservation biology and in regional planning. Mathematical models developed by the Hanski group can be used to build and promote coexistence of Man and Nature, for instance in urban environments where planning of green areas bears importance. The field research of the Glanville fritillary butterfly in Åland is a well-known classical model system. The scientific literature produced by Hanski is rather enormous; the ISI Web of Knowledge database suggests that he is the author or co-author of more than 200 scientific articles and has edited several books. As of May 2010 he is the seventh most cited ecologist in the world. Hanski died of a long-illness on 10 May 2016 in Helsinki, aged 63.

Advocacy Hanski was also an active advocate of nature and biodiversity conservation, participating in public debates. His central view was that the responsibility of ecologists is not restricted to producing scientific information but includes avid participation in the processes using the information produced.

Awards and recognition In 2000, he was awarded the Balzan Prize for Ecological Sciences. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2005, the second Finnish scientist ever to receive this award. In April 2006, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Crafoord Prize in biosciences 2011 "for his pioneering studies on how spatial variation affects the dynamics of animal and plant populations". In 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). In 2016, Hanski was awarded the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology for opening up an area of ecology that explains how species survive in fragmented habitats and allows to quantify extinction thresholds. In September 2015, he received the honorary title of Academician of Science from the Academy of Finland.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ilkka Hanski

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ilkka Hanski claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ilkka Hanski before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ilkka Hanski ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ilkka Hanski

In research: Ilkka Hanski appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ilkka Hanski in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ilkka Hanski is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1953 births, 2016 deaths, Academic staff of the University of Helsinki, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ilkka Hanski outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ilkka Hanski in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ilkka Hanski means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ilkka Hanski out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ilkka Hanski in simple terms?

Why does Ilkka Hanski matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ilkka Hanski?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ilkka Hanski.