Biography
Ville-Valtteri Visuri
Associate Professor
Process Metallurgy Research Unit
University of Oulu
Finland
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Ville-Valtteri Visuri is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Primary Metallurgy of Steelmaking and leader of the Primary Metallurgy Research Group at the University of Oulu. He also serves as Deputy Head of the Process Metallurgy Research Unit and as Chair of the Executive Board of the Centre for Advanced Steels Research (CASR). Additionally, he is an Academy Research Fellow (2023–2027) funded by the Research Council of Finland and has been elected to begin serving as a member of the Faculty Board of the Faculty of Technology in 2026.
He previously served as R&D Manager at Outokumpu Stainless Oy, held academic positions at the University of Oulu, and undertook two research visits to RWTH Aachen University. He holds the title of Docent in Process Metallurgy (Modelling of Reaction Kinetics in Pyrometallurgy), a D.Sc. (Tech.) in Process Engineering, and M.Sc. (Tech.) and B.Sc. (Tech.) degrees in Industrial Engineering and Management, all from the University of Oulu. During his undergraduate studies he spent one semester studying Business Administration, mostly Corporate Finance, at the Technical University of Munich. He has also been awarded the European Engineer (EUR ING) title by FEANI and holds the Goethe-Zertifikat C2: Großes Deutsches Sprachdiplom from Goethe-Institut Düsseldorf. In addition, he has completed the Science Leadership Program (10 ECTS) and a University Pedagogy module (25 ECTS) at the University of Oulu.
His research focuses on the chemical and physical fundamentals of steelmaking processes — particularly electric arc furnaces, converters, and ladles — using mathematical modelling, computational thermodynamics, and high-temperature experiments. He has worked extensively on argon-oxygen decarburisation, electric arc furnace steelmaking, and hot metal desulphurisation. Recently, he has initiated research on hydrogen plasma smelting reduction, with emphasis on process modelling, process monitoring, slag practice for efficient dephosphorisation, and pre-reduction. He has contributed actively to several large projects focusing on process development and sustainability in the steel industry, most recently to HELIOS (EU MSCA), H2PlasmaRed (EU Horizon Europe), and TOCANEM 2 (Business Finland). He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers.
Visuri’s teaching focuses on master’s-level courses and doctoral education at the University of Oulu. He lectures on primary metallurgy of steelmaking as well as on modelling and simulation of metallurgical processes, and also delivers visiting lectures at Aalto University and RWTH Aachen University. He has served as a supervisor in 15 ongoing or finished doctoral theses and examined doctoral theses in several countries. He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences and symposia on metallurgy and sustainable steelmaking. In 2023, he co-chaired the 5th European Academic Symposium on EAF Steelmaking in Oulu. He has peer-reviewed articles for 26 scientific journals and serves as a member of the editorial board of the journal Materia.
He serves as a board member of the Finnish Association of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, a member of the management board of the University of Oulu Chapter at the Finnish Union of University Professors, and Vice-Chairman of the Board at the University of Oulu Association. He is affiliated with three SMEs — Luxmet Oy, Teknoventure Oy, and Hannu Luukinen Oy — and he has acted as an expert witness for voestalpine BÖHLER Edelstahl GmbH & Co. KG. His working languages are Finnish, English, and German, with additional proficiency in intermediate Swedish and elementary Russian.