Mika Sirén is a Senior Scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and has more than 25 years of experience in implementing and managing public, private and jointly funded EU and national R&D projects in welding and manufacturing, advanced materials and solid state joining. His scientific interests include welding technologies, high strength stainless and structural steel welding metallurgy and more recently welding simulation.

In 1990 - 1991 he worked at VTT as a research trainee on vacuum brazing and diffusion bonding of ceramics to metals and also prepared his M.Sc. thesis on the subject. From 1991 to 2009 he worked at VTT as a Research Scientist (regular staff since 1995), and since 2009 as a Senior Research Scientist. He has been acting as a project manager on several public, private and joint funded national and EU R&D projects. In 1998 - 1999 he was a visiting research scientist and an EU Marie Curie fellow in GKSS Forschungszentrum Geesthacht GmbH in Germany for twelve months in the field of solid state joining of intermetallic compounds. He spent a total of nine months as a visiting researcher in the Korean top technical university KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) Dept. of Mechanical Engineering in 2014 to 2016.

He holds an M.Sc. in materials science from Tampere University of Technology, an IIW International Welding Engineer qualification (IWE), an International Project Management Association Project Manager certification (IPMA Level C) and modules 1, 4 and 5 of the International Mechanised, Orbital and Robot Welding qualification (IMORWP). He has authored or co-authored more than 100 publications at VTT on welding technologies, welded lightweight structural applications, as well as advanced and dissimilar materials joining. Mika Sirén is active in various functions in Welding Society of Finland (WSF) since 2002, including the chairmanship of the international qualification training Governing Board since 2016, and participates in the International Institute of Welding (IIW) activities as an expert since 2004, and later on as the national delegate in three committees.