Arctic symposium speakers
Charles C. Adams
Ambassador Adams arrived in Finland to take up his duties on August 3, 2015. He grew up in a foreign service family which was stationed in Canada, France, Germany, Morocco, Senegal and Ghana. Adams received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1973. He worked in Geneva, Switzerland in international law offices for nearly 30 years and is widely recognized as a leading expert in international arbitration. He speaks French, German, and conversational Swahili and understands several other languages.
Terry V. Callaghan
Terry has worked in the Arctic for 49 years on plant ecology, ecosystem science and environmental change. He developed several scientific fields and contributed to major arctic and global organisations and environmental assessments including IPCC. He led the Abisko Scientific Research Station (Sweden) and developed a network (INTERACT) of 77 research stations. Terry published over 430 scientific papers and is a “Most Cited and Influential Researcher” on the Web of Science. He has been recognised by Honorary Ph.D.s from Sweden, Finland and Russia, medals from the King of Sweden and Queen of England, and the joint award of the Nobel Peace Prize to IPCC in 2007.
Dr. Linda Chamberlain
Linda Chamberlain, an epidemiologist, is the founding director of the Alaska Family Violence Prevention Project and an adjunct professor at the University of Alaska. Dr. Chamberlain specializes in understanding and addressing the effects of domestic violence and childhood trauma. She will be conducting research in Finland to inform the development of a community education toolkit on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and best practices to promote healing and wellness. She lives on a rural homestead with her husband and dog team outside of Homer, Alaska.
Susan Chatwood
Susan Chatwood is the Executive and Scientific Director of the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. She is an Assistant Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from University of British Columbia, holds a Masters in Epidemiology from McGill University and is a Ph.D. candidate in Medical Science at the University of Toronto. She is Past President of the Canadian Society for Circumpolar Health. Susan has spent most of her career in remote and northern communities, working in the clinical setting, public health and research. Her research interests include circumpolar health systems stewardship and performance, and the synthesis of knowledge that promotes broader connotations of health systems and wellness. During the Canadian chairmanship of the Arctic Council she was pleased to lead an international team of researchers who explored promising practices for mental wellness initiatives in circumpolar regions.
Andrée Noëlle Cooligan joined the Department of External Affairs and International Trade in 1991 following work in the airline industry. Ms. Cooligan has served abroad as Trade Commissioner in Thailand, Senior Trade Commissioner and Consul in Turkey and as Chargé d’Affaires and Commercial Program Manager in Finland. In Ottawa, Ms. Cooligan has held various management positions, including Acting Director and Deputy Director for the Trade Commissioner Service Marketing Division and the Regional Offices Division. Prior to taking on her duties as Canada’s Ambassador to the Republic of Finland, Ms. Cooligan was the Commercial Counsellor at the Embassy of Canada in Berlin, Germany from 2010-2013. Ms Cooligan holds a Bachelor of Arts (1988) from the University of Ottawa, with combined credits from Laval University.
Jennifer Ey
Jennifer Ey serves as the Chief of Staff to the Special Representative for the Arctic at the Department of State. In this capacity, she advises the Special Representative, develops strategies for achieving U.S. policy objectives, and leads Arctic policy coordination within the Department. She also serves as the Department of State liaison to the White House’s Arctic Executive Steering Committee. Prior to assuming this position in September2014, Ms. Ey served in various positions in 14 years at United States Coast Guard.
Bruce Forbes
Research Professor Bruce Forbes, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, leads the Global Change Research Group. A geographer by training, he has been conducting field research annually on human-environment relations and land cover/land use change in Arctic regions for 30 years, working in Alaska, the Canadian High Arctic, eastern and western Siberia, and Fennoscandia. Specializing in northern Russia since Soviet times, Prof. Forbes’s participatory field research involving local stakeholders focuses on northwest Eurasian tundra ecosystems. Recent interdisciplinary topics include: (1) resilience in social-ecological systems in cooperation with Nenets and Sámi reindeer herders; (2) social and environmental impacts of hydrocarbon extraction; and (3) growth of deciduous shrubs and relation to climate change and reindeer herbivory. He has contributed to major assessments including the IPCC 5th Assessment Report (2014) and is a lead author for the Arctic Human Development Report II (2014). He holds adjunct positions as Institutional Fellow, Institute of Arctic Studies, Dartmouth College, and Research Scientist, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Yrsa Grüne
Yrsa Grüne is an Editorial Writer since 2008 at Hufvudstadsbladet (HBL), a national daily published in the Swedish language and founded in 1864. Her area of expertise are Foreign and Security Policy, Arctic and Nordic issues. She was a war correspondent during the wars in the Balkans in the 1990:ies. She has previously had several different positions at HBL and also worked at Yle. Ms Grüne has worked for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, both in Geneva and in disaster operations in Aceh, Pakistan and Romania.
She speaks Swedish, Finnish, English, German, French and Spanish and has a BA degree from Hanken, the Swedish School of Economics & Business Administration in Helsinki.
Åge B. Grutle
Mr. Grutle has been Norway’s Ambassador to Finland since October 8, 2015. He has Master’s degree in International Affairs in Soviet studies from Columbia University and he speaks Russian. He has spent most of his career in the Foreign Service. He served as Norway’s Ambassador to Japan from 2004 to 2009. In 2009-2105, he was Lord Chamberlain at the Royal Court in Oslo. Mr. Grutle is a Fulbright Scholar alumnus.
Tamara Harms
Markku Heikkilä
Markku Heikkilä works since 2010 as the head of Science Communications unit in the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland in Rovaniemi. Before that he had a long journalist career in newspaper Kaleva (Oulu, Finland). He has keenly followed international Northern and Arctic co-operation since early nineties. Heikkilä has written several documentary books with Northern and Arctic themes and regularly writes columns and articles. Currently his activities include popularizing Arctic information for various audiences, Arctic related policy work and stakeholder contacts.
David Hik
Professor, Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Research interests are focused on the ecology and dynamics of Arctic and mountain terrestrial environments; determinants of social-ecological resilience; and the interface between science and policy. Currently serves as on the Advisory Boards of Polar Knowledge Canada; Arctic Centre (Rovaniemi); Alberta Environmental Monitoring, Evaluation & Reporting Agency; Arctic Institute of Community-Based Research (Yukon); and is Visiting Guest Professor, Polar Research Institute of China. He was President of the International Arctic Science Committee from 2010-2014.
Gwen Holdmann
Liisa Holmberg
Liisa Holmberg, who is Sámi, is the Rector of the Sámi Education Institute in Inari, Finland. The school, specializing in indigenous livelihood and traditions, has established a strong international network especially in the Russian north with 27 organizations and schools all around the arctic. Holmberg is a member of the Board of the Arctic Society of Finland, which operates under the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. She is also a member of The Arctic Advisory Board of Finland, and a vice-chair of the UArctic council 2015-2017. The University of the Arctic (UArctic) is a cooperative network dedicated to education, research and the promotion of indigenous and local capacities and sustainable development in the circumpolar North. Politically, Holmberg has an interest in international activities in the indigenous issues, emphasizing the importance of youth and adult education and university degree programs on Indigenous Issues.
Aleksi Härkönen
Aleksi Härkönen has served as Finland’s Ambassador for Arctic Affairs since 2014. Operating under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ambassador for Arctic Affairs manages Finland's participation in international arctic cooperation, for example, as a member of the Arctic Council. Härkönen has previously served, for instance, as the Finnish Ambassador to Estonia (2010-2014), a Special Adviser to President Tarja Halonen (2009-2010), and the Head of Finland's OSCE Chairmanship Task Force (2007-2009). Härkönen holds a Master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Helsinki.
John Forbes Kerry is the 68th Secretary of State of the United States, assuming the post on February 1, 2013. Secretary Kerry joined the State Department after 28 years in the United States Senate, the last four as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The son of a Foreign Service Officer, Secretary Kerry served two tours of duty in Vietnam with the United States Navy. He was elected Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1982, and 2 years later, was elected to the United States Senate. Secretary Kerry was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in 2004.
Tapio Kosunen
Previously Tapio Kosunen was State Secretary to Jukka Gustafsson, Minister of Education and Science, between 2011 and 2013. Prior to that, between 1999 and 2003, he worked in senior executive positions as a Political Adviser to Maija Rask, the then Minister of Education, and as a Ministerial Adviser. He has also been a Senior Ministerial Adviser of Education in the Ministry.
Tapio Kosunen holds a Doctorate in Education. He has been adjunct professor at the University of Helsinki since 2003 and an adjunct professor at the University of Eastern Finland since 2001. He also has a Master’s degree in Teacher Education.
Dr Kosunen’s work qualifications are versatile, covering experience in planning, education, research, executive management and leadership functions.
Lars Kullerud
Lars Kullerud has held the position of President of UArctic since May 2002. Throughout his UArctic Presidency, Lars has continued to foster an academic interest in the northern environment and development issues and published several academic papers on the issue in addition to representing UArctic. Before joining the UArctic team, he was the Polar Programme Manager for GRID-Arendal which serves as UNEP's (United Nations Environment Program) key polar centre. His academic background is in Precambrian Geology and Isotope Geochemistry, geostatistics, petroleum resource assessments, as well as assessments of the Arctic environment.
Kari Laine
Professor Kari Laine is the UArctic Vice-President of Research, as well as the lead of the Thematic Networks and Research Liaison Office. He is a board member in the Committee for Polar Issues Finland, and the committee for UNESCO scientific programs. He is also the representative of Finland in the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), as well as in the European Polar Board (EPB). Professor Laine’s areas of scientific expertise include environmental ecology and ecological problems in the north, including Global Change aspects. In his research, he has focused on issues related to northern ecosystems and their vulnerability, especially in regard to environmental changes with a multidisciplinary approach. His publications encompass more than 90 international referee articles and over 150 scientific and popular articles in scientific publications, proceedings and journals.
Mari Maasilta
Mari Maasilta, is a University Lecturer of Media Education at the University of Lapland, Rovaniemi. She is the coordinator of the International Master’s Degree Programme on Media Education. She has her Ph.D. in Media and Communication Research at the University of Tampere. She has worked as a journalist, researcher, teacher of journalism and coordinator of extensive studies for journalists. Her research and teaching interests include representations of migrants and minorities in the media, democracy and human rights in the media and critical media education. She has experience of working and living both in the north of Lapland and in the south of Africa.
Bjarni Már Magnússon
Bjarni Már Magnússon Ph.D (Uni Edinburgh) is an Assistant Professor at Reykjavik University School of Law. He is the author the Continental Shelf beyond 200 Nautical Miles: Delineation, Delimitation and Dispute Settlement (Brill, 2015). His teaching and research interest lies in public international law, especially the law of the sea.
Lawrence G. Mason
Lawrence Mason is the Team Lead for Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program at CIES. He manages a team of program staff for the Fulbright Visiting Scholar program and oversees a variety of Fulbright exchange programs, including the Fulbright Arctic Initiative. Lawrence manages program implementation and logistics, and is the contact person for Fulbright Arctic Initiative program administration.
Stephen Money
Terhi Mölsä
Terhi Mölsä is the Executive Director of Fulbright Finland since 2002. A former journalist, she has nearly 30 years of professional experience in higher education internationalization, initially at the institutional level at the University of Tampere, Finland, where she helped launch their European mobility programs, and at the national level serving Finnish Ministry of Education agencies and Fulbright. She has served as a consultant, trainer, and curriculum developer on international education leadership and management in Europe and the United States, and has organized and chaired international education conferences in several European countries. Having studied and conducted research with scholarship awards in Estonia, Russia, and the United States, she holds a Bachelor’s in Russian and a Master’s in International Relations from the University of Tampere.
Jouko Niinimäki
Doctor of Technology Jouko Niinimäki has been the Rector of the University of Oulu from January 2015. In addition, he was appointed as Chairman of co-operational organisation for Finnish universities UNIFI in the beginning of 2016. Before becoming the Rector, he worked as Professor of mechanical process engineering, and as Dean of the Faculty of Technology. Niinimäki matriculated as a Doctor of Technology in the University of Oulu in 1998. He graduated as Master of Science in Technology in 1993.
Pirita Näkkäläjärvi
Ms Pirita Näkkäläjärvi is the Director and Head of the Sámi-speaking arm of the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle. She has run Yle Sápmi since 2012 and has since then created the Sámi-speaking TV news Yle Ođđasat (Yle News) on Yle's main news channel Yle TV1, the young people's program Sohkaršohkka (Sugar Shock) and internet news service in three Sámi languages. Before Yle Ms Näkkäjärvi worked as Strategy Manager at Metso Oyj, Management Consultant at Booz & Company, M&A Manager at Nokia Oyj and Investment Banker at Merrill Lync. Ms Näkkäläjärvi holds MSc (Econ.) from Helsinki School of Economics (Aalto).
Matti Pennanen
Greg Poelzer
Dr. Michael Sfraga
Laura Tauriainen
Laura Tauriainen is currently studying science communication in Oulu University, has a prior education in media and has been working in social media for the last three years. She believes that social media is a useful tool when you know how to utilize it for your own benefit. Laura Tauriainen works also as a freelance journalist and a digital producer, striving for creating novel content that makes people get involved and engaged.
Dr. Maria Tysiachniouk
Since 2004 she has studied global governance through FSC certification and published a book "Transnational governance through private authority: the case of Forest Stewardship Council Certification in Russia. In 2012 she started extensive research on transnational oil production chains in Russian Arctic, focusing on the interactions between oil companies and indigenous communities. Maria Tysiachniouk has written more than 180 publications on topics related to transnational environmental governance, edited several books, and has fieldwork experience in several countries and regions. She is currently chair of the Environmental Sociology group at the Center for Independent Social Research, St. Petersburg.
Dr. Øystein Varpe
Øystein Varpe is an Associate Professor in ecology at Department of Arctic Biology, University Centre in Svalbard (Longyearbyen, Norway) and an Adjunct Scientist at Akvaplan-niva (Tromsø, Norway). His main interests are in evolutionary ecology, and his work spans a wide range of species but is mostly on birds, fish, and plankton. A central question in his research is how the strong seasonality of the Arctic shapes ecological processes and evolutionary adaptations. Øystein’s broader interests include sustainability, harvesting, conservation, education, and philosophy of science.
Dr. Niels Vestergaard
Niels Vestergaard is a resource economist, who in most of his academic work has investigated the relationship between natural resources, the environment, and the economy. In his work he applies both theory and data to address important current day issues. Currently, he works with arctic marine resource management issues, technological change in renewable resource industries and renewable energy, and economics of storage.
Dr. Ross A. Virginia
FAI-scholars also present at the Symposium
Dr. Tom Arnbom
Tom Arnbom has more than 40-years’ experience in the Arctic and has seen many changes over the years. His career can be divided into four sections: academic, media, government and working for an NGO. His academic background is in marine mammals (MSc Sperm whales off Galapagos Islands, Memorial University, Canada and Ph.D. Southern elephant seals on South Georgia, Antarctica at Stockholm University/British Antarctic Survey, Sweden/UK). During his graduate studies at South Georgia, he did some filming, which led him into media after finishing his Ph.D. During almost ten years he was part of the international natural history film industry. He used his scientific background to transform relatively heavy scientific findings into stories few had told the public. The end result should be simple and correct narration. Then he got an offer for a position at the Swedish Ministry of Environment with a group of external experts who were giving advice directly to the Minister. In 2007 he went to WWF Sweden as Senior Conservation Officer. Today, he is responsible for Arctic issues, such as Arctic Council and to coordinate projects in the Russian Arctic. He has participated in four WWF expeditions: Chukotka-polar bears (2007), Svalbard-climate change (2009), Laptev Sea-walrus (2013) and Svalbard-polar bears (2014). WWF has broadened his knowledge of the Arctic, from political negotiations to pure scientific questions. The Arctic is an intellectual challenge while it is undergoing some dramatic shifts, and conservation has to manage a moving target where the end result is unknown. That is why he loves this region and cares for the people living here. His task during the Fulbright is to develop a pan-Arctic agreement for management of walrus.
Asli Dis
Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv
Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv is Professor in international relations/political science at the University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway. Her research interests are focused on security studies, including the perceptions and practices around energy, economic and environmental security amongst state and non-state actors in the Arctic. She co-leads the University of the Arctic endorsed Pan-Arctic graduate program in Extractive Industries. She is lead and co-editor of Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic (Routledge 2014), and has written extensively on security, gender, Arctic, and civil-military interaction.
Dr. Anne Hansen
Anne Merrild Hansen holds a Msc in Engineering and a PhD in Strategic Environmental Assessment. She is a Social Science Professor at Ilisimatusarfik, Greenland and Associate Professor in Environmental Assessment and the Arctic at Aalborg University at the Danish Centre for Environmental Assessment, Denmark. She is further a member of the regional ‘Adaptation Actions for a changing Arctic’ team on Baffin Bay – Davis Strait for the Arctic Council.
Dr. Noor Johnson (on leave)
Noor Johnson is a Senior Advisor to the Office of International Relations at the Smithsonian, where she supports the development of global initiatives on cultural heritage and biodiversity conservation. She also holds an appointment as Adjuct Assistant Professor of Environment and Society at Brown University (Providence, RI). Her research has examined knowledge politics and processes in environmental governance, with a particular focus on Inuit involvement in climate change policy in the Canadian Arctic. As a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University, she worked with the Inuit Circumpolar Council to develop the Atlas of Community-Based Monitoring in a Changing Arctic (www.arcticcbm.org). Noor's recent work focuses on knowledge and consultation practices in relation to offshore oil and gas development in the Arctic. She has a Ph.D. from McGill University (Cultural Anthropology), an M.A. from American University (Public Anthropology), and a B.A. from Brown University (Development Studies). She previously served as a junior Fulbright Scholar in Sri Lanka, where she studied conflict and development.
Dr. Trevor Lantz
Trevor Lantz is an Associate Professor at the University of Victoria. His research focuses on the rates, causes, and consequences of Arctic environmental change. He and his students work collaboratively with indigenous hunters and trappers to gain insight into regional environmental change and to guide detailed field research investigating the processes facilitating change. To place their field studies in a regional context, and to examine variation at a broader scale, they use remote sensing and modelling. Trevor’s recent research has focused primarily on: 1) vegetation change, 2) thawing permafrost, and 3) Arctic storm surges.
Susanna “Itty” Neuhaus-Schuck
Dr. Laura Sokka
Dr. Laura Sokka works as a senior scientist in the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. She is specialised in environmental impact assessment applying life-cycle based methods. In recent years her research has focused on the assessment of renewable energy and local energy systems. In 2012-2014, Laura participated in the preparation of the IPCC AR5 WG3 report as a contributing author and chapter science assistant. She is also a member of the Finnish national IPCC contact group. Presently she is contributing to the report “Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic (AACA)” commissioned by the Arctic Council.