Elina Turjanmaa is a Lecturer in Social Psychology in the Department of Social Sciences. Her research focuses on migration, minority identities, and family relationships. She has examined, for example, how intergenerational relationships are shaped after migration, the transmission of historical trauma in families with a forced migrant background, and the relationship between familial remembering of past traumatic events and descendants’ mental health. After completing her doctoral degree at the University of Helsinki in 2020, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Migration Institute of Finland and the University of Oulu, and as a visiting researcher at the University of Essex, before joining Kuopio in Autumn 2024. Currently, Elina leads a project funded by the Kone Foundation that examines intergenerational experiences of non-belonging and their connections to mental health in Swedish Finnish families.
Elisa Männistö ([email protected])
All living things are adapting to the constantly changing world, and I as a biologist am interested in understanding how. Currently, I am intrigued by ecology of peatland ecosystems that are tightly linked to the ongoing climate change. In my PhD project, I study the spatial and temporal variation of methane and biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) emissions in boreal peatland ecosystems. These gases have an important role in climate regulation, as methane is a potent climate warming greenhouse gas and BVOCs can have both climate warming and cooling effects. The objects of my research are
- to uncover the links between both methane and BVOC emissions and peatland vegetation (variation in space).
- to study the variation in methane and BVOC fluxes over growing season and between different years (variation in time).
- to quantify how decreasing water level changes the BVOC emissions from the Sphagnum mosses, in a greenhouse experiment.
Elisa Tiilikainen ([email protected])
I am a social scientist interested in issues related to ageing, life course and social wellbeing. My work includes work with research projects and teaching around questions related to social gerontology and gerontological social work. I have lead a four-year research project on old-age social inclusion in home care (SOLDEX) and a workpackage on digital health technologies and services of older adults (75+) as part of a Nordic collaboration project (HAIDI). Currently I am the PI of a four-year research project on older men’s driving cessation (DRIVEX) anda three-year project on working with complex family relations in gerontological social work (VAPGE). My research team consists of post doctoral and doctoral researchers and I am involved in several multidisciplinary programs and networks.
Ella Heimonen ([email protected])
I work as a doctoral researched in FriendMUM research project in the Department of Social Sciences. In my social psychological doctoral research I am studying the process of shared identity in friendships between mothers from immigrant and Finnish backgrounds.
Elli Vento ([email protected])
My research interests are related to well-being tourism research. Previously, I have analyzed well-being outcomes of tourism among disadvantaged customer groups in the context of social tourism, as well as motivational factors and service preferences of wellness tourists. Currently, I am working on two research projects that examine, respectively, the outcomes and potential of transformative tourism and regenerative nature tourism.
Emilia Happonen ([email protected])
I am a postdoctoral researcher in Pharmaceutical Physics group at the Department of Technical Physics. I have graduated as Master of Science from Medical Physics in June 2019. I had my doctoral defense in January 2025. The topic of my doctoral research was photothermal therapy with black porous silicon nanoparticles for targeted cancer treatment. Nowadays, I am studying new mRNA delivery vehicles for efficient cell transfection.
Emilia Kansanen ([email protected])
- Strategic leadership and development of research funding services at the University of Eastern Finland; Head of the Research Services team
- Development of support services and processes for the research funding application phase
- Support for ongoing research projects and provision of project management services
- Development of strategic support instruments for research funding
- National and international collaboration with research funders and networks
Emilia Korkea-aho ([email protected])
I am Professor of European Law and Legislative Studies, PI of Academy of Finland Research Project on revolving doors (REVOLVE, 2021–2025) and of the Kone Foundation research project on political influence and lobbying in Finnish municipal politics (LoSKa, 2023-2027). I am also Visiting Fellow at the Maastricht Centre for European Law.
My research interests relate to law and democracy in the EU and national contexts, with a focus on EU institutional and constitutional law. In recent years, I have written about soft law, legal expertise, lobbying and the revolving door phenomenon, and the national governance of EU structural funds. Methodologically my work is interdisciplinary and socio-legally oriented with an emphasis on qualitative expert interviews.
I have held visiting positions at Melbourne Law School (2023), Yale Law School (2019-2020), EUI (2007, 2014-2015), Columbia Law School (2010), and University College London (2008-2009).
I have served in various expert positions relating to lobbying and its regulation. As of June 2023, I have served as Vice-Chair of the Advisory Board for the Finnish Transparency Register. In 2020, I received the Academy of Finland Award for Social Impact in recognition for my work on lobbying.
Emmi Salmivuori ([email protected])
I’m doing my dissertation research with foundation funding since 12/2021 at the department of History and Geography. I’m working also as a project coordinator in the project ”Sustainability transition from the margins” since 1/2023.
I’m interested in issues related to rural development, rural businesses and use of natural resources.
My dissertation research is focused on adaptation of business activities based on forests to structural and social change pressures on broader level of society. As a part of my dissertation, I’m doing an interview research that examines the factors behind the development and adaptation of forest-based businesses of interviewed forest owners and rural SME companies.