Mikko Kaasalainen

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Mikko K.J. Kaasalainen is a Finnish applied mathematician and mathematical physicist. He is currently a research fellow of the Academy of Finland at the department of mathematics and statistics at the University of Helsinki. Kaasalainen has mostly worked on inverse problems and their applications especially in astrophysics, as well as on dynamical systems.

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[edit] Education and career

Kaasalainen received an MSc in theoretical physics at the University of Helsinki in 1990, moving shortly afterwards to the University of Oxford, Merton College, where he completed his DPhil in theoretical physics in 1994, supervised by James Binney. After a series of post-doctoral and senior positions in Europe, he moved to his present institute in 2003. He leads a research group in the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Inverse Problems Research.

Kaasalainen was awarded the first Pertti Lindfors prize of the Finnish Inverse Problems Society in 2001. The asteroid 16007 Kaasalainen is named in his honour.

[edit] Research

Kaasalainen's research interests mostly focus on mathematical modelling in various fields ranging from remote sensing and space research to planetary and galactic dynamics. Typically, the models and mathematical methods Kaasalainen has developed with his colleagues are connected with inverse problems. Two such topics feature prominently in Kaasalainen's research:

  • Asteroid lightcurve inversion [1], i.e., the reconstruction of the shapes and spin states of asteroids from their brightness measurements (lightcurves), based on mathematical results and uniqueness and stability theorems [2][3][4] that have been transformed into modelling algorithms with which a multitude of otherwise unresolvable asteroids can now be mapped[5][6]. This method has also been used in the direct verification of the YORP effect in our solar system[7].
  • Analysis of large dynamical systems, where torus construction methods [8][9] in phase space allow a compact representation or approximation of the dynamics of the observed system (such as a galaxy).

[edit] References

  1. ^ M. Kaasalainen et al. (2001): Optimization methods for asteroid lightcurve inversion. II. The complete inverse problem. Icarus 153, 37.
  2. ^ M. Kaasalainen et al. (1992): Interpretation of lightcurves of atmosphereless bodies. I. General theory and new inversion schemes. Astronomy and Astrophysics 259, 318.
  3. ^ M. Kaasalainen and L. Lamberg (2006): Inverse problems of generalized projection operators. Inverse Problems 22, 749.
  4. ^ L. Lamberg and M. Kaasalainen (2001): Numerical solution of the Minkowski problem. J. Comp. Appl. Math. 137, 213.
  5. ^ Asteroid model website
  6. ^ Minor Planet Observer website
  7. ^ M. Kaasalainen et al. (2007):Acceleration of the rotation of asteroid 1862 Apollo by radiation torques. Nature 446, 420.
  8. ^ M. Kaasalainen and J. Binney (1994): Construction of invariant tori and integrable Hamiltonians. Physical Review Letters 73, 2377.
  9. ^ M. Kaasalainen (1995): Construction of invariant tori in chaotic regions. Physical Review E 52, 1193.

[edit] External links