Career
He is currently on leave from his position, having been appointed as rector of the University of Helsinki on August 1, 2003 for a five-year period. On April 25, 2008, he was chosen to succeed Kari Raivio as chancellor of the University of Helsinki, beginning 1 June 2008. A significant contribution to the philosophy of science, particularly to the topic of verisimilitude or truth approximation, is his Truthlikeness, (1987) Synthese Library, Springer.
Another notable publication is Critical Scientific Realism, (2002) Oxford, Oxford University Press.
In 1990s, Niiniluoto among other university employees organized a plead to the consistory of the university to abolish ecclesiastic remnants from the university ceremonies. Ilkka Niiniluoto is editor-in-chief of Acta Philosophica Fennica, the leading philosophical journal of Finland.
From 2008 to 2013, he served as the Chancellor of the University of Helsinki. In 2011 he gave a Turku Agora Lecture.