Meet junior researcher Venla Wallius, who will be taking care of the practicalities and organization of Koli Forum events together with the rest of the Secretariat and Board.
Venla has been living in North Karelia for most of her life, but she had a six-year detour in Jyväskylä, Central Finland, studying corporate environmental management (M.Sc.) as well as environmental science and technology (nearly finished M.Phil.). After this summer, she’ll continue her studies and start her PhD process in the Corporate Environmental Management program at the University of Jyväskylä. Her PhD will focus on stakeholder perceptions of wood-based products in bioeconomy transition.
Venla came to EFI in December 2018 to write her first Master’s Thesis and she has been a junior researcher since spring 2019. Currently, she is working on issues related to Koli Forum, a discussion platform with themes related to bioeconomy. She is also active in the KIBIO project exploring the possibilities of developing forest bioeconomy in North Karelia and China. She is interested in a variety of issues related to sustainable forest bioeconomy and keen on learning more, but her special interests include consumer research, bioeconomy markets, and impact assessment.
Outside work, she spends time with her two dogs – typically out in the nature or doing a variety of dog sports. Her favorite tree is aspen (Populus tremula), as it is an important species for boreal forest biodiversity, but the trees are also absolutely beautiful especially in the autumn (which is her favorite season) when their leaves turn to vibrant yellow.
