Erkki Levänen has been Professor of ceramic materials since March 2012. Since the beginning of 2014 he has also been Head of Department of Materials Science. Professor Erkki Levänen has published over 150 scientific publications, from which 57 are peer-reviewed papers, resulting h-index of 13. He is the only professor in Finland responsible for research and development of ceramic materials ands responsible for the higher education of ceramic materials in Finland.

His research areas and interests include functional surfaces, porous structures, engineering ceramics and processing of ceramics. The annual project budget is around 1 Million Euros and covers funding of academic research by Finnish Academy, applied industrial research funded by Tekes (the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation) and direct industrial research funded by companies and EU projects.