Sulev Mäeltsemees (born 7 August 1947) is an

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

n public administration and local government scholar and generally held to be the father of

municipal autonomy A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

. Born in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

, Mäeltsemees received his degrees from the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

and worked, among others, as director of the Department of Social Infrastructure and Regional Economics of the Institute of Economics of the

Estonian Academy of Sciences Founded in 1938, the Estonian Academy of Sciences (, ) is Estonia's national academy of science in Tallinn. As with other national academies, it is an independent group of well-known scientists whose stated aim is to promote research and develo ...

(1986-1992). He is currently

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

and chair of regional policy at

Tallinn University of Technology Established in 1918, Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech; ) is the only Institute of technology, technical university in Estonia. TalTech, in the capital city of Tallinn, is a university for engineering, business, public administration a ...

, where he already worked from 1978 to 1986 and from 2005 to 2016 also serves as dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. In 1992-1993 he was chairman of the Tallinn

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

, and from 1993-1997 the director of the Estonian Institute of Public Management, the state's central in-service training agency for civil servants.Sulev Mäeltsemees
Estonian Research Information System

References

1947 births Academics from Tallinn Living people Academic staff of the Tallinn University of Technology Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 4th Class {{Estonia-academic-bio-stub