Eija Kononen DDS, PhD

Eija Kononen completed her PhD “Oral gram-negative anaerobic microflora in young children” in 1994 and continued her postdoc studies at Anaerobe Reference Laboratory, National Public Health Institute (KTL, currently THL), Helsinki, Finland, and the University of Aarhus, Denmark, receiving a docent degree in oral microbiology at University of Helsinki in 1999. During these years, she also performed a 3-year specialist training in periodontology at the University of Helsinki. In 2002-2003, she worked as an Associate Professor of Periodontology at Kuwait University. After returning to Finland, she headed the Anaerobe Reference Laboratory at KTL, until taking up her post as Professor and Chair of Periodontology at the University of Turku in 2007. She recently retired, now continuing research as a Professor emerita.

Eija has authored more than 160 scientific articles in the fields of periodontology, oral microbiology, and anaerobic bacteriology in international peer-reviewed journals and 13 book chapters in international microbiology/infectious diseases textbooks. She has been describing novel bacterial species from the oral cavity (Prevotella pallens, Prevotella micans, Capnocytophaga leadbetteri) and the intestine (Alistipes onderdonkii, Alistipes shahii). One anaerobic bacterium has been named for her: Peptoniphilus koenoeneniae. Currently, she serves on the editorial boards of Anaerobe and the Journal of Oral Microbiology. She served as President of NOF in 2015-17, President of the Finnish Society of Periodontology in 2011-20, and President of the Scandinavian Society of Periodontology in 2010-11.