Heini Kujala, University Researcher, Principal Investigator,
Heini Kujala (PhD) is a University Researcher at Finnish Natural History Museum (LUOMUS). Her work focuses on systematic conservation planning, climate change impacts and decision-making under uncertainty. She is particularly interested in spatial conservation optimisations, from reserve network design to cost-efficient management and biodiversity offsetting. She has not specialised in any species or taxa, but somehow often finds herself working with birds.
Tere Vadén, BIOS Research Unit
Tere Vadén (PhD) is a philosopher who has looked at the material and intellectual underpinnings of politics and culture, particularly the experiential dimensions of energy. In addition, he has immersed himself in the potential developmental paths of the digital world.
Anne Quarshie, Assistant Professor, Biodiversity and Business, Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, Turku School of Economics, University of Turku
Anne Quarshie (D.Sc., Econ. & Bus. Adm.) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Turku. Her main research interests include biodiversity-respectful and sustainable business and supply chain management, systemic change processes, interorganizational interactions, and humanitarian disaster preparedness and response. She is involved in the BIODIFORM and BIODIFUL consortia.
Mikael Hilden, Professor, Climate Change Programme, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)
Mikael Hildén has a PhD in resource management from the University of Helsinki and is specialised in the evaluation of climate and environmental policy. He is vice chair of the Finnish Strategic Research Council and holds a position as Expert Councellor in the Supreme Administrative Court. He has gained expertise in combining legal, economic, social, technical, and scientific research on environmental policy. Recent policy studies he led include an analysis of options for revising the Finnish Climate Act and an evaluation of the Finnish national adaptation policy.
Karri Liikkanen
Karri Liikkanen is a student of energy and environmental engineering at Aalto University. At the time of the conference, he has just completed his bachelor’s thesis on nature positive energy technologies. Before his studies at Aalto, he studied philosophy at the University of Helsinki and worked on two research projects. Karri was the chairman of the entrepreneurship society of the University of Helsinki, has run his own video production company, and worked with multiple startups, including at Fortum’s startup unit.
Gargi
Gargi is a first-year master’s student in the Joint Nordic Innovative Sustainable Energy Engineering programme at Aalto University, majoring in Energy Systems. She did her bachelor’s studies in India in Industrial Engineering and Management. In 2021, she participated in the CERN hackathon on energy, science, and sustainability, which drove her passion towards studying clean and green technology. She believes that accessing technologies from a multidisciplinary outlook as an engineer drives innovation and benefits our efforts towards meeting sustainability goals. In this team, she focuses on the philosophical outlook to conceptualise the meaning of nature positivity in the context of energy technologies.
Anna Niemilä
Anna Niemelä is an Engineering Physics student, finishing her Master's degree this year. Niemelä is planning on going into research in fusion energy technologies and is interested in the green energy transition from both political and technological points of view. Niemelä focuses on the concrete side of nature-positive technologies in this project by looking into existing examples and futuristic scenarios.
Clara Prêcheur Llarena
Clara Prêcheur Llarena is an exchange student at Aalto University, doing her Bachelor’s in Physics. At her home university (EPFL) in Switzerland, she has been actively involved in associations for the environment by doing Life Cycle Assessments for companies. That challenged her view on the preconceived ideas about the impact of our actions on the world. In this project, she focuses on the philosophy behind nature positivity to challenge those thoughts and ideas and dive deeper into these strongly biased entities – the human mind.
Lotta Ansas
Lotta Ansas is a third-year bachelor’s student of Applied Physics at Aalto University. She is interested in human-ability to modify our environment and the possibility of creating more sustainable engineering solutions for a greener future. In this project, her objective is to focus on the current state of environmental impacts of energy production and how both positive and negative environmental effects can be evaluated.
Janne Halme, D.Sc Tech, University Lecturer, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University School of Science
Janne Halme (D.Sc. Tech) is a physicist and educator on new energy technologies and solar energy with interests in cross-disciplinarity research, ecological sustainability, and innovation. His research in photovoltaics and photoelectrochemical solar cells recently spun into transdisciplinary art-science practice exploring the relations between humans, technology, and nature. He teaches courses on solar energy engineering, hydrogen and fuel cell technology, and the Multidisciplinary Energy Perspectives, which is the course that brings this session to this conference.
Hanna Paulomäki, Researcher, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aalto University School of Engineering / Expert, The Finnish Nature Panel
Hanna Paulomäki is an ecologist (MSc), trained facilitator and an experienced project lead who has worked with biodiversity and sustainability questions for over twenty years as an expert and in leadership positions in international organisations, including HELCOM, Oceana and Greenpeace Norden. She is a co-editor and author of a textbook on renewable energy systems and planetary boundaries and is part of a team developing virtual learning materials for energy engineers.
Mika Järvinen, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aalto University School of Engineering.
Mika Järvinen (D.Sc Tech) is a Tenured Associate Professor at Aalto University. His research group Energy Conversion and Systems, studies Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) and thermal conversion of waste materials, for example, thermal gasification of end-of-life plastics. He is also doing research to combine variable renewable energy sources with thermal power plant concepts and to utilize low-temperature heat for power production. Mika is an enthusiastic educator, teaching courses on thermal power plants and renewable energy conversion. He focuses on sustainability and is preparing a new textbook on Renewable energy and planetary boundaries with Hanna Paulomäki.
Karri Liikkanen, Aalto University
See above