PAES unit brings together researchers from all stages of the academic career, representing diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Together, we aim to advance transdisciplinary research to evaluate potential future pathways for society at large.
Get to know our members below.
Professor of Socio-ecological Systems and Vice-Dean
Transdisciplinary studies and long-term development of socio-ecological systems and natural resource use.
University Lecturer
Environmental decision-making, sustainability transitions, and societal responses to environmental risks.
Helmi is a post doctoral crisis researcher who explores public authorities’ preparedness for socio-ecological crises, especially chronic ones. Currently, she studies how climate change and transition policies impact Finland's security of supply, focusing on critical minerals for the energy transition, fertilisers, and pharmaceuticals. She has also worked on the Finnish comprehensive security model, scenario-based simulation exercises, pandemic preparedness, and the governance implications of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) collapse. At the end of 2026, Helmi will start a two-year project on the societal impacts of an AMOC collapse.
Julia ((Yulia Layus for UH people finder) is an environmental historian with a degree in history of science, focusing on relations between fisheries science and fisheries in the European North of Russia/Soviet Union between the 1890s and 1930s. With a background in marine biology, she studies the history of use of biological resources, as well as history of marine and polar sciences. She have contributed to major international projects, including HMAP, ESF Boreas, IPY, and several Arctic-focused collaborations with colleagues from Sweden. She was a Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Birmingham and later worked on history of Soviet climate science. For 15 years, she directed the Center for Environmental and Technological History in St. Petersburg and also headed an English-language MA program in history. Since 2022, when she left Russia, she have held research and teaching positions in Berlin, Columbia University, NIAS, and the Smithsonian. At HCAS, she is writing a book on Arctic science, climate, and politics in the 1920s–1940s.
Mikael is an environmental archaeologist with a broad multidisciplinary background. His current research bridges archaeology, anthropology, environmental history, ecology, and sustainability science. Mikael has extensive international interdisciplinary expertise gained through collaborations across multiple research fields, and he holds the Title of Docent in environmental archaeology at the University of Turku and in archaeology at the University of Helsinki.
Mikael’s research focuses on the role of humans in past socio-ecological systems, with particular attention to how communities have impacted the biosphere and adapted to resource scarcity, climate variability, and ecological stress in the past. His research has addressed topics ranging from ancient technology, cross-cultural analysis, and cultural evolution to ancient-DNA, human adaptive and coping strategies, multi-species population dynamics, and the effects of climate events on human societies.
Taarna is Associate Professor (Title of Docent) of Saami language at the Giellagas Institute for Saami Studies at the University of Oulu, currently working as a senior researcher at the Universities of Helsinki and Turku. Her research interests lie, in general, in the field of multidisciplinary Saami Studies with a focus on linguistics, history, folkloristics, and cultural studies. It is characteristic of her work to offer a wide understanding and historical contextualization of the topic and subjects under study, and she always attempts to interpret the research materials from a Saami point of view.
Taneli's research examines the status and direction of chemical risk governance in Finland, focusing on how a national system implements EU regulations amid ongoing policy reforms. More specifically, he is interested in everyday chemicals such as endocrine disruptors that fall between institutional responsibilities despite growing scientific and public concern. His approach combines environmental policy and science and technology studies (STS) to trace how scientific knowledge, technological practices, and political strategies co-produce certain toxic realities and regulatory lock-ins, while excluding alternative pathways.
His previous work experience includes laboratory research in chemical engineering and communications roles in both profit and non-profit organizations.
Tuuli is a post doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Helsinki. She studies the societal impacts of cascading and cross-sectoral socio-ecological crises and develop participatory methods to enhance crisis management and governance. Her current work explores the impacts of socio-ecological crises on maritime activities and coastal communities, focusing especially on the co-creation of transformative knowledge together with diverse marine actors and stakeholder (funded by Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation). She have also studied the preparedness and adaptation of cities to extreme weather events, as well as the social acceptability of renewable energy projects and just green transitions. Her PhD thesis focused on marine risk governance, more specifically on the use of probabilistic Bayesian network models for oil spill risk management and governance in the Baltic Sea.
Julius' research interests focus on consumer behaviour in the context of the sustainable transition. He is planning to begin my PhD in spring 2026 in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki, where his research will examine the role of nostalgia in the sustainable food transition. In his current role as a research assistant in the University of Jyväskylä, he writes academic articles about the implications of the Circular Economy within Finland’s textile industry. He has also co-authored a report exploring the meaning and relevance of the forest bioeconomy in Finland.
Pinja has a background in Political History and is currently completing her Master’s thesis in Sustainability Science. Pinja's research interests circle societal resilience, adaptation and regeneration in the context of the environmental crisis. Her research approach draws from systems theory and complexity theory, using qualitative and applied historical methodologies. Her master's thesis examines past small-scale societies' responses to environmental stress and systemic collapse.
Eliza is an Environmental Change and Global Sustainability Master’s student investigating observed and experienced impacts in the landscape surrounding wind power developments in Finnish Lapland using a combination of remote sensing-based vegetation monitoring and participatory mapping.