International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, IEAS

Academician

Hanna Lappalainen

Profile:

Elected Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences on 15 November 2016, Docent Hanna K. Lappalainen is a distinguished Finnish atmospheric and ecosystem scientist and a key architect of the Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX), a major multinational research programme addressing land–atmosphere–ocean–society interactions across the Arctic, boreal, and Silk Road regions. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Helsinki in 2011, with research on atmospheric biogenic volatile organic compounds and plant phenology. Her subsequent career has combined atmospheric and ecosystem science with the coordination of large-scale international research programmes, including the EU FP7 Integrated Project EUCAARI and the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Meteorology of Atmospheric Composition and Climate Change. She currently serves as Secretary General of the PEEX Programme and Director of the Impact Programme at the Atmosphere and Climate Competence Center (ACCC), both based at the Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR), University of Helsinki. Her contributions to international scientific cooperation and Earth-observation infrastructure have also been recognised through the NASA Goddard Team Award for the EOS-AURA OMI Team and the Silver Medal of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences.

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Dr. Lappalainen’s research and programme leadership have focused on the interactions between the atmosphere and biosphere across northern Eurasia, particularly biogenic volatile organic compounds, ecosystem–atmosphere feedbacks, and the environmental and societal dimensions of climate change in the Arctic–boreal region. As lead editor of the PEEX Science Plan and a driving force behind the GlobalSMEAR initiative, she has helped establish a coherent multidisciplinary framework linking atmospheric, terrestrial, and societal observations. Under her coordination, PEEX has brought together more than 300 scientists from over 40 institutes in 18 countries, advancing collaborative research on climate change, air quality, ecosystem processes, and sustainable development across the Eurasian domain. Her selected works examine the development of the PEEX Programme, its extension to the Silk Road region, the integrated land–atmosphere–ocean–society framework, its role in multidisciplinary research and capacity building, and the EUCAARI programme on aerosol–cloud–climate and air-quality interactions. Collectively, these contributions demonstrate her distinctive role in connecting process-level environmental science with long-term observation systems, international research coordination, and the institutional foundations needed for evidence-based climate policy and trans-Eurasian scientific cooperation.