Dr. Pitkänen is currently a Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio, Finland. She has over a 30 years’ experience in working and developing animal models of acquired epilepsy and phenotyping of epilepsy models, using histologic and molecular analysis, behavioral tests, long-term video-EEG and MRI imaging. She is a leader in epilepsy research and has participated in several NINDS on Epilepsy Models Workshops and worked in several ILAE Committees related to preclinical modelling and use of models to develop better therapies for epilepsy. She has an h-index of 52 and has over 279 publications.