11th October 2019 at 14:15 in Physicum D101: Tuija Pulkkinen

For our colloquium on 11th of October, we will be joined by Professor Tuija Pulkkinen. Professor Pulkkinen is a space physicist and Chair of the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan, USA. Her primary research foci are studying the energy flow from the solar wind to the near-Earth space environment and the energy dissipation processes in the magnetosphere.

Students drown under expanding curricula, young assistant professors panic under the everchanging requirements for tenure, senior professors have no time for research, and faculty and staff have no voice in the university’s decision-making.” We have all seen these headlines, in all continents and throughout times. Yet, the challenges are changing and contain regional and cultural aspects. While the academia will continue to be a competitive environment and thereby to some extent stressful, there are many ways to turn unnecessary competition to collaboration, reward community building efforts, and actively promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the local environment. This talk discusses issues contributing to wellbeing or lack thereof based solely on personal experiences of academic leadership in Finland and in the US.