Who's involved: Mervi Gürsoy

Mervi Gürsoy is an associate professor in periodontology at the University of Turku (Finland). She was awarded her DDS degree by the University of Helsinki (1999), and then her PhD in periodontology (2012) and her qualification as a specialist in periodontology (2013) from the University of Turku.

Her doctoral thesis was “Pregnancy and periodontium – A clinical, microbiological, and enzymological approach via a longitudinal study” and she has subsequently co-authored various research articles relating to periodontology and pregnancy, the most recent of which was “Salivary antimicrobial defensins in pregnancy” published in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology (October 2016).

Dr Gürsoy has received the Young Researcher award from the Scandinavian Society of Periodontology (2011), the Hatton award (clinical research, senior category) from the IADR/ Scandinavian division (NOF) (2011), the second prize of the Unilever/IADR Hatton award (2012), and the IADR/Philips Oral Healthcare Young Investigator Research grant (2013).

She reviews articles for numerous scientific publications in the field of periodontology and oral microbiology.

She has been a junior officer on the European Federation of Periodontology’s undergraduate committee (2015-2017) and a board member of the Finnish Society of Periodontology.