The Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research, INAR, is a multidisciplinary research centre at the University of Helsinki. INAR carries out high-level national and international atmospheric and environmental research, producing research data for society to utilise. The research at the institute spans from the molecular level all the way to extensive global challenges.
Jouni Keronen is a Doctor of Technology and an MBA. In his research he has focused on solutions to mitigate climate change, developing energy technologies, and the deployment of IT in the energy business. He has deepened his knowledge of atmospheric research in leading posts in the Climate Leadership Coalition (CLC) and Fortum.
Last spring, Keronen retired from CLC. He was the first managing director of the organisation established in 2014, and still works part-time as the second speaker of its advisory committee and a consultant for CLC.
He has also held several leading posts in the international Fortum energy group, and has been a researcher at VTT and in Californian SRI International and Electric Power Research Institute. Keronen is also the vice chair of the Finnish government's Climate Policy Roundtable and a docent of the LUT University. In collaboration with Mari Pantsar, Keronen wrote the internationally acknowledged climate book At the Crossroads, which was first published in Finnish in 2019 under the name Tienhaarassa.
– Keronen is a great choice, because he has excellent knowledge of climate change as a whole and he is networked both nationally and internationally in the academic and business world. We hope that Keronen will help us develop significant international projects focusing on carbon cycles, says Academician Markku Kulmala, director of INAR and ACCC.
As Professor of Practice, Keronen wants to promote collaborations between INAR and leading international research and financing organisations in the same field.
– During this century, we must remove about the same amount of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere as we emit there from now on. No country has yet made sufficient commitments when it comes to carbon sinks and stocks on this scale. Since it often takes dozens of years to develop carbon sinks, we need to hurry with the large-scale actions. We also need more research data on this topic in order to activate countries in the matter, says Keronen.
The professorship is a part-time post lasting five years.