Enrico Di Minin appointed Director of Taita Research Station

Professor of Conservation Geography Enrico Di Minin has been appointed the Director of the Taita Research Station at the University of Helsinki for a five-year term, starting from October 2024.

Enrico Di Minin is an environmental scientist whose research interests span several disciplines, including geography, economics, and computer science. He has conducted interdisciplinary research especially in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Currently, Di Minin serves as a professor of conservation geography in the Department of Geosciences and Geography at the University of Helsinki.

“I am really excited about this new position and the prospects of working in collaboration with many academic and non-academic stakeholders. Taita is an important part of the world for both people and nature”, says Di Minin. 

Taita is part of a global biodiversity hotspot 

Enrico Di Minin’s own research focuses on where, when, and how to balance between the needs of biodiversity conservation, carbon storage, urban development and agricultural and forestry value, amidst a warming climate. Di Minin’s research also leverages the use of digital data sources such as social media and AI methods to study human–nature interactions. 

 “This line of research is especially relevant for Taita Research Station. Taita Hills are part of a global biodiversity hotspot in an area with growing conflicts between an increasing human population, their needs for food and development, and the need to conserve nature to help tackle climate change and prevent emerging diseases”, Di Minin points out.

Complex challenges and promising opportunities ahead

Di Minin would like the Taita Research Station to become a leading research station in Africa through multidisciplinary research and by supporting African scholarship. 

“As the new director, I will do my best to help enhance collaborations across disciplines at the University of Helsinki, in Kenya, and beyond. I will also seek opportunities to further improve the station’s quality of research, research training, and teaching, and for it to become even more known locally and nationally in Kenya.” 

According to Di Minin, it will also be important to support a research approach that can tackle Kenya’s complex societal and sustainability challenges. 

Taita’s first director Petri Pellikka considers Di Minin’s appointment a good choice.

“The University of Helsinki can be very pleased to have found a great successor for the work that began in 2003, when I received the first funding from the Research Council of Finland for research in the Taita Hills.”

“It is very important to me that Taita Research Station remains in good hands, as it is a place very dear to me. It has become a central part of research at the Department of Geosciences and Geography, and it also attracts new students to study geography at the University of Helsinki.”

Read more:

Enrico Di Minin is on the hunt for animal traffickers on social media

Enrico Di Minin's research group: Helsinki Lab of Interdisciplinary Conservation Science

Taita Research Station upgraded for top research