I’m a philosopher specializing in environmental ethics and space ethics. My research interests include environmental protection in outer space, space and colonialism, space settlement ethics, philosophy of sustainability, climate ethics, animal ethics, and philosophical methodology. As a philosopher, I am particularly interested in extreme cases that challenge ordinary perceptions of morality and make moral theorizing particularly difficult. I defended my thesis on climate ethics in October 2025. I also serve as the coordinator for the Turku Environmental Ethics Research Center (TEERC) and the Nordic Environmental Ethics Network.
I will start as a TIAS (Turku Institute for Advanced Studies) Postdoctoral Fellow in September 2025. My research project Environmental Ethics for the Solar System is in the field of space ethics and analyses the sustainable and ethical use and management of extraterrestrial resources. The overarching questions addressed in the project include 1) what kind of environmental values the diverse space environments of the Solar System possess, 2) what kind of sustainability issues and limits there are to treating those environments as resources, and 3) what kind of ways of managing those resources are justified. The central problem is that current space regulation lacks precision and clarity regarding the types of environments in question and specificity in how to treat these environments. This vagueness can lead to overuse, exploitation, and destruction of environmentally valuable areas. Even more worryingly, it can incite unregulated competition, and in the worst case, drive geopolitical conflicts over the dominance of those resources. Thus, we need specific rules for specific space environments.
I have taught environmental philosophy, philosophy of sustainability, moral philosophy, and philosophical methodology at the Philosophy unit of the University of Turku, and social sustainability in the Sustainable Development Studies study module at the Turku School of Economics.