معرفی
Heini Kujala serves as Research Director at the Finnish Natural History Museum (LUOMUS), which is part of the University of Helsinki's Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences. She leads the Biodiversity Informatics Unit and Conservation Informatics Research Group, and serves as Supervisor in the Doctoral Programme in Wildlife Biology. Her research focuses on systematic conservation planning, climate change impacts, and decision-making under uncertainty.
Dr. Kujala's research interests center on spatial conservation optimization, spanning from reserve network design to cost-efficient management and biodiversity offsetting. She specializes in computational approaches to conservation problems, with particular expertise in how uncertainty affects conservation outcomes. While not specializing in any particular taxonomic group, her work frequently involves bird species as indicators. Her scientific fields include ecology, evolutionary biology, climate change, biodiversity conservation, conservation area planning, and modeling species distribution areas.
Her recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on practical conservation applications, particularly examining how biodiversity offsetting can be made credible through transparent accounting systems, how species distribution modeling affects conservation outcomes, and how data quality influences spatial conservation prioritization. Her work bridges theoretical conservation science with practical policy implementation.
Among her scientific recognition are the Olli's prize (2010) and the Young Influential Woman in Society Award (2008). She has secured significant research funding through multiple projects including BOOST II, NaturaConnect, and No Net Loss City.
Dr. Kujala actively engages in academic service through board memberships with the Ministry of the Environment, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, and IUCN. She regularly hosts visiting researchers at the University of Helsinki and participates in peer review activities. Her work has received media attention for findings on the importance of small and isolated habitat patches for species survival.
