Kristina Leppälä is a researcher whose current work examines the navigation and enactment of sustainability and the circular economy in organizational and industrial contexts. Her scholarship draws on practice‑theoretical approaches to investigate multi‑actor collaboration, materiality, technology, and transitions toward more sustainable industrial systems. She has published in international peer‑reviewed journals, contributed to scholarly edited volumes, and presented her research at national and international academic conferences.
She has served as a researcher in several major projects funded by the Research Council of Finland (Strategic Research Council), the EU Just Transition Fund (CE4ALL), the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, the Foundation for Economic Education, and Business Finland.
Leppälä teaches and supervises both Master’s and Bachelor’s students, working as a lecturer, responsible teacher, and thesis advisor. She has also held guest lecturer positions at Savonia University of Applied Sciences and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. Prior to her academic career, she spent many years in research and development roles within the high‑tech industrial sector.
Her international experience includes visiting researcher appointments at Stanford University (USA) in 2024 and 2025, with the latter supported by a Fulbright Finland grant, and at the University of Exeter (UK) in 2023. She serves on multiple boards and is regularly invited to speak as an expert at academic, professional, and policy‑oriented events.
Originally from the United States, Leppälä has lived in Finland for several decades and maintains strong professional and personal ties across both countries.
Empowering primary school teacher to include pupils with special education needs into physical education classes using digital tools project.
HOHTO/OPUT projects
The effectiveness of self-directed pace versus a tutor supported pace of a special education MOOC (Intervention research)
Dr. Laboni Akter, MBBS, MPH, MSc is a medical doctor and a doctoral researcher in Neurology at the Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Eastern Finland (UEF). Her current research focuses on dementia prevention and Brain Health, with a particular emphasis on the role of biomarkers in dementia prevention trials across high-, middle-, and low-income countries. She is currently working with the FINGER Study (Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability) in Finland, the WW-FINGER Network spanning more than 70 countries, and the BELIEVE Study (Bangladesh Longitudinal Investigation of Emerging vascular and Non-vascular Events) in Bangladesh, conducted by the University of Cambridge, UK.
She has a strong background in Medicine, Public health, and Global health research and was awarded the Finland Scholarship 2023 for Excellence in her application to the Master of Public Health program (specialized in Epidemiology) at UEF. Previously, she received the Chinese Government Scholarship to pursue a Master of Public Health (MPH) at Southeast University, China.
Dr. Akter has worked in academic, clinical, teaching, and field research settings across Finland, China, and Bangladesh. Her experience includes teaching positions at Wuhan University of Science and Technology and Guizhou Medical University in China, as well as research and professional roles at the Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition (UEF), WHO, IEDCR, icddr,b (Bangladesh), and KCOC (Korea). Her work bridges medicine, epidemiology, clinical research, and global brain health, with a commitment to improving dementia prevention strategies globally.
The research group will elucidate how terrestrial organic matter affects transfer of essential fatty acids, amino acids and elements in the littoral food webs of boreal lakes.
I am a professor of Russian language at the University of Eastern Finland. My research interests include language contacts, Samoyedic languages, and non-standard varieties of Russian including colloquial Russian, Russian in contact with Finno-Ugric languages, and language use in media. My approach to language is typological and usage-based. I studied Russian-Finnish contact in the speech of Finland Russians, in particular code switching, word order in possessive noun phrases, gender integration of Finnish nouns, and the case of the direct object. I traced the impact of Northern Baltic Finnic influence in Old East Slavic and Old Russian. I am a specialist in Samoyedic (<Uralic) languages, in particular Nganasan. I conducted field work with Forest Finns in Sweden, Finland Russians, Inari Sámi, Estonian Old Believers, as well as Northern Samoyeds in Siberia: Nganasans, Forest Enets, Forest Nenets, and Tundra Nenets.
RESEARCHER
Title of Docent (Research in mathematics education)
I am Lasse Eronen, a Finnish researcher in mathematics education, with a wide range of studies, particularly focused on innovative learning environments, motivation, and sustainable development. My research has targeted various educational levels, ranging from primary school to university level. I am particularly interested in how the design of learning environments and teaching methods can impact students’ motivation and well-being. My research interests also include digitalization in mathematics education, and taking into account students’ emotions and opinions in mathematics teaching. I have researched, for example, the emotional reactions activated by mathematical problem-solving and how to facilitate these in teaching. (ChatGPT, based on 2020-2022 published articles)
TEACHER
Excellent Teaching Practitioner Award
Lasse Eronen: Eronen has years of experience in research-based development of teaching both in collaboration with his closest colleagues and across faculty boundaries. Eronen uses learning analytics to develop his teaching, and he has been in charge of developing self-assessment on the Arviointimaa (Reflection Landscape) platform. Besides utilising student feedback, he also involves students through Master’s theses dealing with the development of teaching. Research-based activities and sharing of practices are highlighted in Eronen’s teaching, and they also constitute part of transferable skills development. (UEF, 2023 Excellent Teaching Practitioner Award statement)
