Guild of Physics bumps into alum in Jyväskylä teachers' room
On their high school tour, the Aalto Guild of Physics ran into Antero Hietamäki in the teachers' room in Jyväskylä. Hietamäki, now the Administrative Head of the Teacher Training School, was a student of engineering physics and mathematics in the 1980s.
‘I remember how we used to queue up for Täffä's spaghetti and read Donald Duck comics in the guild room. During my studies they also built Rantasauna, and that was a big deal for the whole tech student community. We also founded a sports club in the Guild of Physics at that time,’ says Hietamäki.
Hietamäki didn’t know about the visit of the Guild of Physics beforehand but bumped into them in the teachers' room.
‘I looked at the familiar-looking overalls. I dug mine out when it happened to be at school after the school’s olympics. Back in my student days I was lazy about collecting badges, and I guess some of them have fallen off.’
Diverse opportunities and career paths
In a meeting with the Guild of Physics, Hietamäki shared old memories of his studies.
‘Quite a few people start studying engineering physics and mathematics because it's interesting and there are lots of study options. In addition, you can also orient yourself in so many different directions in your career’, Hietamäki says.
‘The encounter was memorable for us the physics and math students. We were pleasantly surprised. It was nice to hear about the career path of an alum in our field, to exchange ideas and to compare studies and student culture in Otaniemi at different times. And of course it was cool to see the old overalls!’ says Anna Kämäräinen from the Guild if Physics.
Hietamäki was originally a researcher in theoretical physics. When he was a summer student at CERN, he bumped into his future PhD supervisor and ended up at the universities of Helsinki and Uppsala.
‘After the dissertation, we moved to Rovaniemi, where I was a senior lecturer in mathematics. From there we moved to Helsinki, where I coordinated the LUMA programme at the Ministry of Education.’
Already in the 1990s, the Finns were concerned about the skills in mathematics, science and technology (LUMA), which led to the creation of the LUMA task force, chaired by the then Minister of Education.
After the Ministry of Education, Hietamäki family moved to Jyväskylä. There Hietamäki made a natural transition to a career as a headmaster.
See more road trip photos of the Guild of Physics
Read more news
Grant-funded summer courses for ENG students available – Apply now!
Would you like a fresh breeze in your studies and the chance to study abroad, but feel that an exchange period is too long or otherwise not a good fit? Join a grant-supported short course in Italy, France, or China in the summer or early autumn of 2026!
Enhance your skills for free with FITech’s summer courses
In summer 2026, FITech's course offering includes plenty of courses related to sustainability, cybersecurity, and future technologies. The application period for summer courses starts on 14 April.