Planetary Health Symposium

The Planetary Health Symposium, held in the Arje Scheinin hall at Dentalia, will feature interesting presentations on planetary health: what planetary health is, why it is important, and what the key drivers of planetary change are. In addition, examples of current and future challenges and efforts to address them will be presented.

The event is organised by the University's COFUND programmes (SYS-LIFE, IMMUFELLOW, UTU-GreDiT, TIES 1&2, and HAIF); the main coordinating programme is SYS-LIFE (Faculty of Medicine).​

Programme:

8.00 Coffee and networking​

8.20–10.00 Session I: Major drivers of planetary change and sustainability ​

Overconsumption: From Excess to Enough – Juulia Räikkönen, Adjunct professor, UTU​

Population decline and reproductive challenges – Jorma Toppari, MD PhD, Professor, UTU​

Keynote: Perspectives on Planetary health – Sirpa Pietikäinen, Member of European Parliament ​

BREAK

10.20–12.00: Session II – Fundamental health challenges and planetary well-being​

Keynote: Health in the time of planetary crisis – Mikaela Grotenfelt-Enegren, MD, Chief physician, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare​

Tick-borne diseases – Jukka Hytönen, Professor, UTU​

Antimicrobial resistance – Antti Hakanen, MD PhD, Chief physician, Turku University Hospital​

Large Language Models for Scalable Mental Health Support – Shaoxiong Ji, Assistant Professor, UTU​

LUNCH​

13.00–14.00: Session III – Food for all, but how? ​

Resilient food systems – Saska Tuomasjukka, Senior researcher, UTU​

Sustainable food for health – Kati Hanhineva, Professor, UTU​

COFFEE BREAK

14.30–16.00: Session IV- Sustainable futures ​

Prerequisites for nature-positive travel and tourism – Esko Sorakunnas, Postdoctoral researcher, UTU​

Green infrastructure and multispecies wellbeing – Nora Fagerholm, Professor, UTU​

Hope for the future? – Ricardo Henriques Correia, Assistant Professor, UTU​

16.00 Closing of the Symposium​

16.05–17.00 Refreshments, networking and entertainment by The Young Ones