Valmet’s Mika Viljanmaa receives Marcus Wallenberg Prize 2012

Viljanmaa receives the 2012 Marcus Wallenberg Prize from H.M. the King of Sweden on October 1, 2012 in a ceremony in Stockholm. In the background, the chairman of the Foundation, Mr. Marcus Wallenberg. Photo: Janne Eriksson.

According to the Board of the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, “The 2012 Marcus Wallenberg Prize has been awarded to Mika Viljanmaa for his ground-breaking development of metal belt calendering technology resulting in better paper print surfaces with less fiber materials and higher production efficiency”. Furthermore, the invention also paves the way for applications in other paper machine sections with the opportunity of becoming a wider platform technology expected to substantially enhance production efficiency, competitiveness and sustainability of paper and board making.

Mika Viljanmaa, M.Sc., born in 1966, joined Valmet in 1996 as a development engineer at their Järvenpää unit, where he also completed his Master’s thesis for the Helsinki University of Technology. Since 2003 he was in charge of calendering research and development at Valmet and since 2009 he has been responsible for R&D in surface treatment technology.

Viljanmaa is a highly prolific innovator, with a total of 120 protected inventions. 57 of these are related to metal belt technology and Viljanmaa is the sole inventor in 12 of them.