Mikael Rinne

Aalto University

Mikael Rinne earned his MSc degree in 1988 from Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) in Finland. Following graduation, he worked for consulting companies in both Finland and Sweden. His consulting assignments were focused on tunnel design, mining, and nuclear waste disposal, with an emphasis on fracture mechanics. Rinne is a founding member of Fracom Ltd, where he has served as CEO since its inception in 2020. The company specializes in rock and fracture mechanics and numerical modeling, with its flagship numerical code, FRACOD, developed for failure analysis in rock-like materials. This code has been successfully implemented in several projects where the stability of rock masses and discontinuities is of concern.

In 2001, Rinne completed his licentiate thesis at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden, and defended his doctoral thesis in 2008 at TKK in Finland. Following the completion of his doctorate, he has been working as a full-time professor at Aalto University, where his main responsibilities include education in mining and rock engineering, research, and academic services. Rinne has been heading the European Mining Course (EMC) at Aalto University since 2008, and since 2022 he has been coordinating this international master's program. He has supervised more than 100 master theses and five doctoral projects from start to finish. Rinne's current research interests lie in rock engineering, rock fracture mechanics, and mining technology. He has been involved in many EU and nationally funded research projects focused on future mining solutions.