Use of collections

The national collections are open to researchers from around the world. The collections are used primarily for scientific research and university teaching, but specimens are in certain cases made available for other museum activities, teaching and environmental education.

As a rule, specimens are available on loan to research institutes and natural history museums. If you are interested in studying our specimens on site or borrowing an item, please contact the relevant collection personnel. Non-scientific loans are subject to fees.

Visit the laji.fi website to explore the specimens recorded in the collections database. In addition, species catalogues have been compiled for certain collections. For further information on our collections, see the ‘Explore the collections’ section. 

 
Collection managers

If planning a loan, visit or donation, please primarily contact the relevant collection manager:

Hemiptera and Minor insect orders
Head of Entomological Collections, Heidi Viljanen: heidi.viljanen@helsinki.fi

Fossils etc.
Academy Research Fellow, Maria Heikkilä: maria.heikkila@helsinki.fi

Coleoptera
Collection Manager, Jaakko Mattila: jaakko.mattila@helsinki.fi

Coleoptera: Carabidae, Scarabaeidae (Melolonthinae, Rutelinae, Cetoniidae), Cerambycidae
Curator, Conrad Gillett: conrad.gillett@helsinki.fi (messages in English only)

Lepidoptera (excluding Geometridae)
University Researcher, Lauri Kaila: lauri.kaila@helsinki.fi
Senior Museum Technician, Pekka Malinen: pekka.malinen@helsinki.fi

Lepidoptera: Geometridae
Director, Pasi Sihvonen: pasi.sihvonen@helsinki.fi

Hymenoptera
Senior Museum Technician, Juho Paukkunen: juho.paukkunen@helsinki.fi

Diptera (excluding Syrphidae and Platypezidae)
Coordinator, Jere Kahanpää: jere.kahanpaa@helsinki.fi

Diptera: Syrphidae, Platypezidae
Head of Laboratory, Gunilla Ståhls-Mäkelä: gunilla.stahls@helsinki.fi

Entomological collections in ethanol
Senior Museum Technician, Elvira Rättel: elvira.rattel@helsinki.fi

Coleoptera (Scarabaeidae)
Academy Research Fellow, Curator, Sergei Tarasov: sergei.tarasov@helsinki.fi (messages in English only)

Once you know which material interests you, we kindly ask you to complete our loan request form.

For preliminary loan enquiries or planned visits or donations, please primarily contact the relevant collection manager:

Non-scientific collection loans
Head of Collections, Hanna Laakkonen: hanna.laakkonen@helsinki.fi

Arachnida, centipedes
Senior Museum Technician, Timo Pajunen: timo.pajunen@helsinki.fi

Aquatic invertebrates, terrestrial worms
Senior Curator, Risto Väinölä: risto.vainola@helsinki.fi 
Senior Museum Technician, Katja Nylund: katja.nylund@helsinki.fi

Other terrestrial invertebrates
Senior Curator, Risto Väinölä: risto.vainola@helsinki.fi 
Senior Museum Technician, Outi Ovaskainen: outi.ovaskainen@helsinki.fi

Once you know which material interests you, we kindly ask you to complete our loan request form.

For preliminary loan enquiries or planned visits or donations, please primarily contact the relevant collection manager:

Non-scientific collection loans, donationas
Head of Collections, Hanna Laakkonen: hanna.laakkonen@helsinki.fi

Mammals      
Senior Curator, Risto Väinölä: risto.vainola@helsinki.fi      
Senior Museum Technician, Outi Ovaskainen: outi.ovaskainen@helsinki.fi

Birds      
Curator, Veronika Laine: veronika.laine@helsinki.fi      
Senior Museum Technician, Outi Ovaskainen: outi.ovaskainen@helsinki.fi

Bird eggs   
Head of Collections, Hanna Laakkonen: hanna.laakkonen@helsinki.fi
Senior Museum Technician, Emma-Sofia Hyytiäinen: emma-sofia.hyytiainen@helsinki.fi

Fishes            
Senior Curator, Risto Väinölä: risto.vainola@helsinki.fi      
Senior Museum Technician, Outi Ovaskainen: outi.ovaskainen@helsinki.fi

Reptiles
Head of Collections, Hanna Laakkonen: hanna.laakkonen@helsinki.fi
Senior Museum Technician, Outi Ovaskainen: outi.ovaskainen@helsinki.fi

If planning a visit, loan or donation, please primarily contact the relevant collection personnel by email. If two people are listed, send your message to both.

Vascular plants and algae
Senior Curator, Henry Väre: henry.vare@helsinki.fi
Visiting researcher, Mikko Piirainen: mikko.piirainen@helsinki.fi (primarily)

Bryophytes
Curator, Xiaolan He: xiao-lan.he@helsinki.fi
Collections coordinator, Sanna Laaka-Lindberg: sanna.laaka-lindberg@helsinki.fi

Fungi
Curator, Otto Miettinen: otto.miettinen@helsinki.fi

Lichens
Curator, Leena Myllys: leena.myllys@helsinki.fi

Garden specimens are not available for loan. For enquiries about research or other collaboration, please contact:

Head gardener, Pertti Pehkonen: pertti.pehkonen@helsinki.fi

When planning a loan, visit or donation, please primarily contact the relevant collection curator.

Rock and mineral collections, meteorites
Senior Curator, Arto Luttinen: arto.luttinen@helsinki.fi

Palaeontological collections
Curator, Björn Kröger: bjorn.kroger@helsinki.fi

DNA samples
Head of Laboratory, Gunilla Ståhls-Mäkelä: gunilla.stahls@helsinki.fi

Tissue samples
Curator, Veronika Laine: veronika.laine@helsinki.fi
Millions of specimens

Watch this video to learn why our collections contain millions of specimens. Senior Curator Henry Väre of the Luomus Botany Unit describes the collections and the identification of species.