Course material is provided by the world leading experts of the field:
Academy Professor Markku Kulmala is the world’s most cited geoscientist (ISI WoS) for the fourth year in a row (2011-2015) and has an outstanding record of international collaboration. Professor Kulmala leads the multidisciplinary Atmospheric Science at the University of Helsinki, Finland and holds an Honorary Professorship in The Nanjing University, The Shandong University, The Fudan University and The Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (RADI). Professor Kulmala has initiated the Air Quality in a Changing World education in order to share his research group’s multidimensional expertize to the experts in different fields of the society.
Professor Kaarle Hämeri holds a professorship in Aerosol Physics at the University of Helsinki. His research topics cover wide range from urban and regional air quality to aerosol measurement techniques and aerosol-health interaction. Professor Hämeri has been a leader of several research projects. He has several confidential posts in international organisations and committees and he has worked as an expert in various institutions. Professor Hämeri has given intensive training courses on aerosol measurement techniques all over the world, also in China.
Professor Tuukka Petäjä is the head of aerosol laboratory and SMEAR field stations in University of Helsinki. He is Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Scientist. He has received Vaisala Award for his work on development of aerosol and trace gas instrumentation, FAAR Award, and he is a member of International Eurasian Academy of Sciences. He is a science director of Pan Eurasian EXperiment (PEEX) program.
Dr Joni Kujansuu is a Research Coordinator for China in Department of Physics, Division of Atmospheric Sciences. He is leading and coordinating collaboration activities between academy, private sector and national institutes in Finland and China focusing especially on atmospheric environment, and related education programs. He is a Beijing Forestry University graduate and has good proficiency in Chinese language.
Dr Kirsi Kettula, Certified Teacher in Finland, is working as a Head of Development at the Palmenia Centre for Continuing Education at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is an expert on transnational higher education and participatory teaching methods, including role-play and drama. She has also published scientific articles on expertise development and reflective learning. At the University of Helsinki, Doctor Kettula has over twenty years’ experience in teaching and teaching development. In 2011–2013, she acted as a pedagogical trainer and educational developer at the Aalto University, Finland. She also led a pedagogical collaboration programme between Aalto University and Tongji University, China, being responsible for common pedagogical courses for Chinese and Finnish faculty.
Dr Taina Ruuskanen is working as a university lecturer at the Department of physics and Palmenia centre for continuing education at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is currently the co-leader of Mass Spectrometry group. She worked as a distinguished Marie Curie fellow at the University of Innsbruck in an EU Industry-Academia Partnership and Pathways -project in 2009-2010 in developing the PTR-ToF-MS method. Doctor Ruuskanen has observation experience for over a decade of measurements at the world widely known Finnish flag ship observation stations SMEAR I, II and III and from tens of field national and international field campaigns including measurements at CERN. She has publications in Nature and Science and has in total 45 peer reviewed, publications in the research fields of atmospheric research including topics of inorganic and organic trace gas observations and atmospheric aerosol particle formation.
MSc Laura Riuttanen is a researcher and lecturer of meteorology at the University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, Division of Atmospheric Sciences. In her PhD work she has studied interactions between air pollution and climate change, as well as air pollution transport and has published 6 articles in international peer reviewed journals. She uses inspirational teaching methods at her courses and has for a decade participated in the development of meteorology and climate education in the national level. She has coordinated courses in the field of continuing education and is currently a coordinator in the education program “Air Quality in a Changing World”.
MSc Pilvi Sihvonen is a teacher of Physics and Mathematics. In her PhD research in The University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, she studies teaching and learning of atmospheric sciences. She has 30 years of experience in teaching in different kinds of fields: Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry in upper secondary school, upper level of comprehensive school and secondary school for adults. She has also taught Physics for elementary school teachers in continuing education and directed music clubs for little children and theater studies for young adults. She works as an expert of teaching and learning in the education program “Air Quality in a Changing World”.
Dr Sirkku Juhola is an assistant professor in urban environmental policy at the Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki. She is also a visiting scholar at the Department of Real Estate, Planning and Geoinformatics at Aalto University (FIN) and an adjunct professor of social and public policy at the University of Jyväskylä (FIN). Doctor Juhola holds degrees from the UK and has worked in Sweden and Japan. Currently, she specialises in urban environmental policy, including air quality and urbanization and she leads several projects related to carbon neutrality, climate change adaptation and urban sustainability. She is the Deputy Chief Scientists of the Nordic Centre for Excellence on Nordic Strategic Adaptation (NORD-STAR) and a co-chair of Finland’s Climate Panel that was set up in 2011 to advice the Finnish Government on climate policy.
Dr Tareq Hussein is a Docent in Physics at the Division of Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Helsinki and also an Associate Professor at the Department of Physics of the University of Jordan. His research interests are: urban and indoor air quality; physical characterization and dynamics of aerosol particles; sources and emissions; fate of atmospheric aerosols – dry deposition; health effects of aerosols; and modeling/analytical/numerical methods. Since year 2000 and via international collaboration he has developed several useful analytical tools and models that are recently combined in a novel approach to evaluate the exposure to aerosol particles and their deposition in the respiratory system based on aerosol particle size and real-time resolution.
Dr Leena Järvi is an adjunct professor and expert in the field of urban climate and meteorology. Particularly, she has studied how the urban surface affects to the surface-atmosphere exchange on heat, moisture and air pollutants (including greenhouse gases). She is the group leader of the urban meteorology at the Division of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Helsinki. She has published 24 publications in scientific journals, with one of them being at The Geophysical Research Letters.
Dr Anu-Maija Sundström is a researcher at the University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, Division of Atmospheric Sciences. The topic of her PhD thesis is “Remote sensing of aerosols: applications for air quality and climate studies”. In her research a special focus has been paid on the remote sensing of aerosols and air quality in Asia, especially in China. She has also worked as a forecasting meteorologist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute and Foreca.
Dr Pauli Paasonen completed his PhD in 2012 on analysis of factors affecting atmospheric new particle formation. He is an expert on anthropogenic and biogenic aerosol formation and their climate effects. For his post-doc at IIASA (International Institute for Applies Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria) he worked on implementing size segregated particle number emissions to global emission scenario model GAINS (Greenhouse gas – Air pollution Interactions and Synergies). Currently, he works at the University of Helsinki, with his main research focus on quantifying the impacts of biogenic and anthropogenic aerosol formation on atmospheric concentrations of climate and human health relevant aerosol particles. Doctor Paasonen is also the coordinator of the multi-disciplinary Doctoral Program in Atmospheric Sciences (ATM-DP), which educates currently ca. 120 doctoral students at the University of Helsinki.
Dr Ditte Mogensen is a researcher at the University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, Division of Atmospheric Sciences with educational background from Finland, Denmark and New Zealand. Her PhD work focuses on improving the current understanding of atmospheric chemistry with an emphasis on the oxidation capacity in boreal environments. This includes improving and simulating emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds and their gas-phase chemical reactions in the atmosphere. She is teaching atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric modelling at the University of Helsinki.