Meet the National Chairs: Peter Kullberg, Finland
Meet the chairs of our five national societies! The chair of Oikos Finland is Peter Kullberg, Project Manager at the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) in Helsinki.
Hi, Peter! How would you describe your national society and its members?
This is a very difficult question to answer in few lines because there is such a great variety of people involved in Oikos Finland. But maybe the strength of societies like this is just that they bring together people interested in similar topics but approaching it from different angles. It extends our possibilities to share ideas and co-operate over institutional borders.
What are your aspirations as chair? Any recent or upcoming developments that you are especially excited about?
I have just started as the chair and in the board of Oikos Finland altogether. The previous chair Mikko Mönkkönen had held the position since the establishment of Oikos Finland. There are also quite a few new members of the board starting this spring. I’m still kind of establishing “the basic routines” which is for me quite exciting in itself. Nevertheless, I consider this as a good time to rethink some of our functions and maybe also to start something new.
One of the upcoming developments that I’m really looking forward to is that we have decided to support arrangement of nationwide courses on special topics. The idea is that by making it possible for students from different institutions to sign in, we could have courses on topics that would not be feasible to organize by any of the institutions alone. These nationwide courses would also build sense of community and allow students to network with each other. We are still discussing the details of how this would be done, but I hope that we could get the first courses happening already next semester.
Any comments on the role of our societies within the big picture of global ecology and its applications in the 21st century?
Understanding how nature works is a crucial part of finding solutions to global change. I think that we should be active in promoting the important of our research in finding the solutions. This is also an answer to the previous question, because I think that when we work together as a society our voice has more weight than as individual researchers or single national societies.
What is your professional focus?
I’m interested in monitoring and measuring change in biodiversity and the role of indicators in decision-making context. Currently, in practice, most of my time goes in setting up the Finnish Ecosystem Observatory (FEO) which aims to create a national cooperation model and data platform to support the extensive monitoring and assessment of and research into the state of ecosystems.
Anything exciting going on now in your life or work?
I’m really excited about the FEO project that I mentioned in the previous answer. It is a four-year project (from spring 2020 to spring 2024) funded by the ministry of environment. I think that it is a great opportunity to build a system that would promote use of ecological knowledge in decision-making context.
What's one way your life or work changed in the pandemic, for better or worse?
In the beginning I thought that this pandemic is not a big deal for me, but now after working remotely for already a year I really miss the informal discussions with colleagues. Similarly, although I think that it is great that it is now so easy to attend to many conferences and there has been great development in how the online conferences work, I miss the coffee breaks and after-conference chats.
Favorite organism or ecosystem: From a very early age I have always loved otters, for some unexplained reason. This is just about good vibes and has nothing to do with professional interest or knowledge. I guess it has something to do with the playfulness of these creatures, but to be honest it there is no special reason, it is just so. I even used “Otter” as my nickname in many web discussions when I was younger.
Favorite book, movie, show: I like reading a lot and I must admit that my favorite book tends to change every now and then when I have finished a good book.
Favorite hobby or activity: I enjoy all types of cycling: road, mountain bike, commuting. But especially I enjoy traveling on two wheels.
Meet the other national society chairs: