Prof Petri Vaisanen is based at South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Cape Town, where he serves as the Director of the Observatory. South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) operates a large suite of telescopes at the Sutherland observing plateau, in addition to the headquarters in Cape Town. Prof Vaisanen is originally from Finland, where he obtained his PhD from the University of Helsinki. During his studies he held a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, United States of America, and after graduating he took up an ESO Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Chile, working as a support astronomer at VLT/Paranal. When arriving to South Africa in 2004, from Chile, Prof Vaisanen joined the first team of Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) astronomers in operating and developing the newly built 10-m class Southern African Large Telescope. Later on, in 2015, he took up the position of Head of Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) Astronomy Operations, and more recently has served as the Director of South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) since 2018. Prof Vaisanen's own research has always been on galaxies and star-formation, in particular observational studies of interacting and merging galaxies, often done from a multiwavelength perspective. He has supervised many students during the years in Cape Town, and he also has a keen interest in development of astronomy around the African continent.
