Jussi Sakari Jauhiainen

Image

The University of Tartu has conferred the degree of Honorary Doctor on Professor Jussi Sakari Jauhiainen for his successful work in developing Estonian-language geography and contributing to its internationalisation, and for his long-standing leadership in Estonian-Finnish research cooperation in geography.

Jussi Sakari Jauhiainen was born in 1963 in Helsinki. In 1986, he completed his bachelor’s studies at the University of Turku, followed by the defence of both his master’s and doctoral theses at the same university. The doctoral thesis, defended in 1995, was focused on urban planning and policy, and urban developments in a broader sense. In the same year, he successfully applied for a job as an associate professor of human geography at the University of Tartu. Jauhiainen has later worked at various Finnish universities: he was a professor at the University of Helsinki from 1999 to 2002 and at the University of Oulu from 2002 to 2009. After that, he has served as a professor of geography at the University of Turku. Throughout this time, he has maintained varying levels of involvement with the University of Tartu, where he currently holds a position as a visiting professor at the Department of Geography. 

Jussi Sakari Jauhiainen has consistently been at the forefront of theoretical thought and scientific advancement in human geography. In the 1990s, he introduced new and innovative research directions to Estonian scholars. Initially, he lectured in English at the University of Tartu, but soon transitioned to Estonian, bringing fresh topics in societal and urban geography to students. Jussi was likely the first to introduce the now-common themes, such as segregation, gentrification, and feminist geography, to Estonian audiences. Under his guidance, scholars began noticing a wider variety of urban processes, significantly broadening the scope of research topics among Estonian geographers. Also in recent years, his activities have been very comprehensive, dealing with refugee crises, innovation, and artificial intelligence.

Jauhiainen has written the university textbook Linnageograafia. Linnad ja linnauurimine modernismist postmodernismini (Urban Geography. Cities and Urban Research from Modernism to Postmodernism, published in Estonian) and co-authored several textbooks for schools. He has supervised two doctoral theses at the University of Tartu and is currently supervising a doctoral thesis under a joint supervision between the University of Tartu and the University of Turku.

The beginning of teaching and making research on geography at the University of Tartu is closely related to the Finnish geography professor Johannes Gabriel Granö who worked here 1919–1923 and was elected an honorary doctor in 1932. His son Olavi Granö (1925–2013) was also a geographer, who worked as a professor of geography and the chancellor at the University of Turku and was elected an honorary doctor of the University of Tartu in 1989. It was Olavi Granö who advised Jauhiainen in 1995 to apply for a job at the University of Tartu, which he was well familiar with. Thanks to Jauhiainen’s dedicated work, the collaborative ties of the Finnish and Estonian geographers have remained strong.