Vesa J. Kiviniemi, M.D., Ph.D. is a radiologist, specializing in neuroradiology and a Docent/Adjunct Professor of Diagnostic Radiology at the University of Oulu, Finland. Prior to this, he was the Head of the Radiology Department, Oulaskangas Röntgen, Hospital of Oulaskangas in Northern Finland.

Following his graduation from medical school in 1996, Dr. Kiviniemi spent 11 months in the army, 6 months as a lieutenant in the Airforce as a resident physician, and worked at the Tel Hashomer University Hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel as well as a general physician in a health-care center in Rovaniemi maalaiskunta, a Finnish municipality in Lapland (now known as Rovaniemi). Dr. Kiviniemi completed his Residency in Radiology in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Oulu University Hospital in 2003, and a Research Fellowship in Biophysics at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (1999-2001).

Dr. Kiviniemi’s current research is focused on fMRI and the development of imaging applicability of fMRI in a clinical setting, utilizing a multimodal approach of fMRI to enhance our understanding of baseline brain activity. Dr. Kiviniemi is an active collaborator, both Nationally (e.g., in the Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Opto-Electronics) and Internationally (e.g., in the Chinese Key Laboratory of Cognitive Science, Beijing, in the departments of Neurology at Stanford University, Psychiatry at NYU, Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Cambridge University in England, Clinical Neuroscience at the fMRIB Laboratory, Oxford University, England, and the NEURO-BUREAU, a forum and collaborative initiative that embraces "open neuroscience" and the sharing of innovative ideas therein. Dr. Kiviniemi is currently conducting research including the Detection of resting state sources from BOLD data using ICA (Independent Component Analysis) based tools, Functional alterations in high functioning autism, Resting state activity in pervasive developmental disorders, ICA in resting state brain networks in normal and neuropsychological conditions, Multi-modal analysis of the origin of resting state network activity, Extra-visual light modulation of brain activity, Effects of untreated childhood ADHD in adulthood, Frontotemporal dementia analysis with resting state fMRI, Spatiotemporal variance and resting state networks, and Spontaneous brain activity and risk of schizophrenia.

Dr. Kiviniemi defended his doctoral thesis: Spontaneous blood oxygen fluctuation in awake and sedated brain cortex – a BOLD fMRI study in 2009. He has been the principal investigator or co-investigator on numerous grants with multi-disciplinary teams. He has published over 100 original articles, reviews and abstracts and has presented his work extensively worldwide as an invited speaker or presenter at Nordic and International Conventions. He is a reviewer for several Journals including: Human Brain Mapping, NeuroImage, Acta Radiologica, Biological Psychiatry, Brain Research, Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, Cerebral Cortex, and serves as an Editorial Board Member of Brain Connectivity.

Dr. Kiviniemi is fluent in Finnish, Swedish, English, and conversational German.