Eliisa Lotsari appointed assistant professor of water engineering

Eliisa Lotsari, PhD, has been appointed assistant professor of water engineering at the Department of Built Environment of the School of Engineering for the period 1 August 2021–31 July 2024. She comes to Aalto University from the University of Eastern Finland, where she has served as university lecturer. The field of the professorship is water engineering, including water economy and hydraulic engineering, and is a part of the Water and Environmental Engineering research group.

Eliisa Lotsari completed her doctorate in 2012 at the University of Turku, where she now holds the title of docent at the Department of Geography and Geology. After completing her postgraduate studies, Lotsari worked at the University of Turku as a postdoctoral researcher for four years before joining the University of Eastern Finland as a university lecturer of geoinformatics. She has served as the chair of the Finnish University Network for Geoinformatics (Fiuginet) during 2019–2021 and as a member of the Finnish National Council for Geographic Information.

She has a broad international network that includes collaborators from TU Dresden, University of Arizona, Umeå University, CSIC Madrid, GFZ Potsdam, University of Hull, University of Southampton, Karlstadt University and University of Canterbury. In Finland, she has had long-term co-operation with the University of Turku, the Finnish Environment Institute, the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute and the National Land Survey of Finland.

'What particularly interests me in the field of water engineering and the study of northern river environments is a year-round data set that can help us understand rivers in greater detail. It is also inspiring to apply new technologies to observation and to develop methods for modelling,' Eliisa Lotsari says.