Jaakko Nousiainen born in Pälkjärvi [fi] on 20 December 1931. From 1953 to 1960, Nousiainen worked at the Finnish Information Office. Between 1961 and 1963 he served as associate professor of social sciences at the University of Education of Jyväskylä. From there, he moved to the post of Professor of Political Science at the University of Turku in 1963.[4] In this position, Nousiainen worked for over 30 years. His last years at the University of Turku Nousiainen served as a Chancellor of the university in 1994–1997.[5]
After moving to Turku, he focused on research into Finnish state institutions in research. Over the next thirty years, he has published several books and articles in the area. Nousiainen has been a key player in the development of the so-called Turku School of Political Studies. The school has profoundly profiled research into political institutions and comparative research of political systems.[4]
Between 1967 and 1968 and 1972–1973, Nousiainen served as dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Turku as deputy rector of the university in 1975–1978, chairman of the University Council in 1985–1988 and chancellor of the university in 1994–1997. He was a member of the board of directors of the European Consortium for Political Research at the European Political Science Association, in 1982–1985, and a member of the board of directors of the Turku University Foundation, in 1989–1997.[3]
In Nousiainen's professorship at the Department of Political Science, he was vigorously taking care of the training of new generation of researchers. Under his guidance as a doctoral student at the University of Turku, Pekka Väänänen (1971), Voitto Helander (1971), Hannu Nurmi (1974), Pertti Laulajainen (1979), Esko Antola (1980), Heikki Paloheimo (1981), Jyrki Käkönen (1985), Matti Wiberg (1988) and Eero Murto (1994). More than half of Nousiainen's doctoral degrees later resided in professorships at various universities.[3]
Nousiainen died on 24 March 2022, at the age of 90.[6]
