Tuula Salo, DDS, PhD

Professor Tuula Salo (born 1958) graduated from the Institute of Dentistry, University of Oulu, Fin-land, in 1983. She defended her PhD thesis in 1985 and received her specialty degree in oral pathology in 1997 at the same University. Salo was appointed as an associate professor in 1998. After working in different teaching and research positions, including her postgraduate research trainings in Birmingham, Alabama; Los Angeles and Vancouver, Tuula Salo was appointed as the full professor in 2004. She served as a vice dean (research) at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, in 2006-2009, and as a member of the Health Research Committee of the Academy of Finland in 2004-2009. Since 2015, Salo has also been a permanent member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. In 2015, she was appointed as a professor of Oral Pathology at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Since 2015, Tuula Salo has worked also as a visiting professor at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Professor Tuula Salo’s research has focused on oral molecular biology and oral pathology. Recently, she has focused especially on the research of the invasion mechanisms, tumor microenvironment and prognostic markers of oral tongue cancer. Professor Salo’s research group has developed an innovative human tissue 3D cancer invasion models. Tuula Salo has published over 300 original research articles and several oral pathology and oral medicine textbook chapters. Her H-index is 64, and she is a well-known lecturer in domestic and international scientific and clinical conferences. For her academic work and teaching in field, Professor Salo received IAOP Rod Cawson Prize in 2010.