Director Paula Kankaanpää
Executive Assistant: Alisa Hiltunen
Visiting address:
Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 13, 00100 Helsinki
Postal address:
PL17, 00014 University of Helsinki
Natural History Museum
Phone for the ticket desk: 02941 28800 during Museum opening hours.
Kaisaniemen Botanic Garden
Phone for the ticket desk: 02941 24455 during greenhouse opening hours.
Kumpulan Botanic Garden
Phone for the ticket desk: 02941 28870 during garden opening hours.
General inquiries and feedback on Luomus public attractions:
luonnontieteellinenmuseo@helsinki.fi
The Public Engagement Unit is in charge of the planning and implementation of the science and environmental education operations of Luomus together with the relevant subject experts. The Unit Is responsible for Luomus’ operations serving or targeting the general public, including museum exhibitions, public outreach at the botanic gardens, guided tours, event production, marketing and customer service.
Visiting address:
Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 13, 00100 Helsinki
Postal address:
PL17, 00014 University of Helsinki
Unit director: Sanna Vuori
Customer service manager: Laura Sandholm
Communications planner: Emil Johansson
The team maintains Luomus’ public attractions during their opening hours and provides multichannel customer service. The team ensures customers are safe and comfortable, provides advice at the ticket desk and in the exhibition facilities, and maintains the general cleanliness of the facilities and ensures all equipment in public spaces is in working order. The Customer Service Team participates in the maintenance of exhibitions and public facilities as well the organisation of public events. At the Kaisaniemi greenhouses the team is responsible for both ticket sales and the small gift shop.
Team leader: Laura Sandholm
The team is responsible for planning and producing Luomus’ content for the public together with the other teams at Luomus. The duties of the Exhibitions and Learning Team include planning, producing and maintaining the exhibitions at the Museum of Natural History; audience content at the botanic gardens; curating temporary exhibitions produced by external institutions; planning content for the Luomus guided tours, training guides as well as coordinating and developing guide operations; public events at Luomus and marketing Luomus and its public attractions.
Team leader: Sanna Vuori
The team consists of expert guides who provide pedagogically designed guided tours tailored for various target groups in the public attractions of Luomus.
Team leader: Sari Siipola
The Zoology Unit is responsible for the zoological collections of Luomus and their maintenance, the preparation of collection specimens as well as research and teaching relating to vertebrate and invertebrate animals. The unit is also in charge of the monitoring studies of the birds and bats of Finland while coordinating Finnish bird ringing activities.
Visiting address:
Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 13, 00100 Helsinki
Postal address:
PL17, 00014 University of Helsinki
Head of unit: Pasi Sihvonen
The team is responsible for the maintenance of the Museum’s scientific collections of vertebrate and invertebrate animals, excluding insects. The Metazoa Team also participates in the development and administration of the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF) for these same organism groups, provides conservator training in the field of natural sciences as well as university-level education in its field, and serves as both a source of expert information and a social force.
Studies conducted within the team relate to topics such as the systematics and distribution history of birds, fish, crustaceans, clams and spiders, the distribution and biology of bats as well as the methods and theory of biodiversity research. The conservation workshop of the team conserves and prepares vertebrate specimens for scientific collections and exhibitions at the museum.
Team leader, Head of collectionsr: Hanna Laakkonen
The team is responsible for the maintenance, accrual, specimen lending and digitisation of the entomological collections. The Entomology Team also participates in the development and maintenance of the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF) for insects, provides university-level education in its field and serves as both a source of expert information in entomology and a social force.
The team includes researchers, postdoctoral students, technical staff and researchers emeriti. The research conducted within the team is varied, with topics ranging from insect taxonomy, systematics, palaeontology, endangered species and their diversity and shifts in diversity. Research subjects have included grass moths, hoverflies, flat-footed flies as well as the evolutionary history of Lepidoptera in general.
Team leader: Heidi Viljanen
The Team is in charge of organising monitoring studies on Finnish birds and bats as well as publicising the results. It also participates in the development of maintenance of the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF) in its field, conducts research relating to monitoring, provides university-level education in its field and serves as both a source of expert information and a social force, particularly in cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment’s Administrative Branch.
The Monitoring Team includes the Ringing Centre, which coordinates all bird ringing in Finland. The duties of the Ringing Centre include the maintenance of data registers, the selection and training of ringers as well as the quality assurance of ringing work. A key mission is to exchange information and otherwise maintain contact with ringers, ring recoverers, international ringing centres, the European Union for Bird Ringing (EURING), researchers who use monitoring data, government authorities, the media and the general public, both in Finland and abroad. The Ringing Centre promotes research conducted with the help of bird ringing by publishing summaries and analyses of bird ringing and ring recovery data.
Team leader: Jari Valkama
The Luomus Molecular Laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art genetic research instruments. The laboratory features workspaces for DNA extraction as well as both pre- and post-PCR work. There is also a separate cleanroom which is primarily reserved for processing historical materials.
The laboratory facilities are available for University staff and partners, and we can also provide training on request.
The Botany and Mycology Unit is responsible for maintaining the collections of vascular plants, algae, moss, lichen and fungi as well as research and education relating to these collections. The unit also produces distribution surveys and nomenclature of Finnish vascular plants. Additionally, the unit maintains the botanic gardens in Kaisaniemi and Kumpula and manages the seed bank operations of endangered wild plants.
Visiting addresses:
Botanical Museum and Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden:
Unioninkatu 44 / Kaisaniemenranta 2, 00170 Helsinki
Kumpula Botanic Garden
Jyrängöntie 2, 00560 Helsinki
Postal address:
PL 7, 00014 University of Helsinki
Head of unit: Marko Hyvärinen
The Vascular Plants Team is responsible for the herbarium collections of vascular plants (1.8 million specimens) and algae (c. 22,000 specimens), and conducts research relating to these organisms, including taxonomy and nomenclature, while participating in their distribution surveys in Finland and Europe. The team is also in charge of the scientific content relating to the living plants in the botanic gardens and the seed bank.
The team has an extensive cooperation network of professionals and hobbyists, and its work is used extensively in both basic research and a variety of other applications. The research focuses on the taxonomy and systematics of vascular plants along with their ecology and conservation biology.
Team leader: Henry Väre
The team is responsible for mycological and bryological collections. It conducts research on fungi and mosses and surveys their distribution, provides university-level education in its field and serves as both a source of expert information and a social force. The team maintains the bryology collection, which is among the fifth largest in the world with its roughly 700,000 specimens. The team is also responsible for the mycological collection, which features a million specimens. Half of the specimens in the mycological collection are lichen, making it one of the world’s largest lichen collections. The team’s research projects focus on molecular phylogeny, taxonomy and ecology. Endangerment assessments of mosses and fungi as well as various guide book projects are also an important part of the team’s work.
Team leader: Tuula Niskanen
The Garden Team maintains the scientific collection of living plants at Kaisaniemi and Kumpula Botanic Gardens. The many duties of the team include growing plants for research and teaching purposes, conserving endangered wild plants in the garden collections and contributing to public outreach.
Team leader: Pertti Pehkonen
The Geosciences Unit is responsible for the collections of minerals, rocks and fossils at Luomus, their maintenance and research as well as the field of geosciences in general. The team also provides university-level education and dating determinations for research purposes and upon commission.
Visiting address:
Laboratory of Chronology: Kumpula Campus, Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2, 00560 Helsinki
geology: Kumpula Botanic Garden, Jyrängöntie 2, 00560 Helsinki
Postal address:
Laboratory of Chronology: PL 64, 00014 University of Helsinki
geology: PL 44, 00014 University of Helsinki
Head of unit: Markku Oinonen
The Chronology Team has three primary tasks: radiocarbon determinations, luminescence dating and stable isotope determinations.
The team participates in research actively and provides commercial determination services. The work of the Chronology Team is highly multidisciplinary and it cooperates with several partners in Finland and internationally.
Team leader: Laura Arppe
The Geology Team is tasked with maintaining the mineral, rock and fossil collections and conducting research in geology and palaeontology. The team provides university-level education in its field while generating both academic and popular scientific information for the general public.
Team leader: Arto Luttinen
The Biodiversity Informatics Unit offers IT services for data management and the digitisation of specimen collections. In addition to Luomus researchers, the unit serves an extensive network of partners through the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility.
The unit conducts cooperation with Finnish museums of natural history, significant national institutions that process biodiversity information as well as government authorities. It also develops services for nature hobbyists and for monitoring studies. The unit participates in the work of international biodiversity informatics networks.
Visiting address:
Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 13, 00100 Helsinki
Postal address:
PL17, 00014 University of Helsinki
Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility feedback:
helpdesk@laji.fi
Head of unit: Matti Sahla
Research Director: Atte Moilanen
The Species Information Team is responsible for stakeholder relations of the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF), serves as the link within Luomus between FinBIF and the other units and teams, and plans services needed in the administration of biodiversity information. The team also manages FinBIF’s biodiversity information content and its quality, ensures data uniformity, promotes the usability of the data together with the ICT Team, supports the ICT Team in FinBIF’s data management, serves as FinBIF’s helpdesk and conducts communications for FinBIF together with University Services.
Team leader: Tea von Bonsdorff-Salminen
The ICT Team is responsible for the development and maintenance of the information systems of Luomus and the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF). It maintains the tools for nomenclature management, promotes the accessibility and shared use of information on organisms, and is responsible, together with the Digitisation Team, for the quick transfer of data generated through collections digitisation into use viaFinBIF’s laji.fi portal. The team also collaborates in national and international networks in the relevant fields. The team manages the technical development and maintenance of the Luomus website together with University Services and communicates with the University’s IT Centre. The members of the ICT Team are software sector professionals.
Team leader: Esko Piirainen (On leave)
Contact: ict@luomus.fi
The Digitisation Team is responsible for the digitisation of Luomus’ scientific collections, doing so in cooperation with the teams responsible for the relevant collections. It supports the ICT Team in the rapid transfer of the data generated through collections digitisation into use through the portal of the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (finBIF), and ensures the efficient and appropriate use of digitisation resources with the goal of digitising all collections as quickly as possible. It also monitors international developments in its field and participates in national and international digitisation projects. Many members of the Digitisation Team also work in another team under the Zoology Unit or the Botany and Mycology Unit.
Team leader: Anne Koivunen
Our research focuses on conservation and supporting land use decisions that promote nature conservation. We develop tools for combating biodiversity loss together with national and international research partners. We also work in close cooperation with Finnish governmental environmental administration to ensure that decisions made regarding nature and its conservation are based on research knowledge as much as possible.