The Estonian Academy of Sciences elected Honorary Doctor of the University of Tartu Mart Saarma as President of the Academy

At the General Assembly of the Estonian Academy of Sciences held on 9 October, the members of the Academy elected Honorary Doctor of the University of Tartu Mart Saarma as the tenth President of the Academy.  

In addition to Academy member Mart Saarma, Jaak Järv, Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Tartu, and Maris Laan, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Tartu, were nominated as presidential candidates.  

Academy member Mart Saarma is research director of the Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Helsinki. In 1990, he was elected as a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences in the field of molecular biology. His research focuses on the mechanisms of nervous system development and neuronal cell death, and the use of nerve growth factors in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.  

Mart Saarma graduated in biochemistry from the Faculty of Biology and Geography, University of Tartu. From 1971 to 1977 he worked as a junior research fellow at the Department of Biological Chemistry and the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Tartu. From 1990 to 1996 he was Professor of Molecular Biology at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology. In 2021, Saarma was appointed Honorary Doctor of Neuroscience of the University of Tartu.  

The current President of the Academy, Tarmo Soomere, will have his second term of office expire on 7 December 2024. The five-year term of the new President Mart Saarma will start on 8 December 2024.