Susa Eräranta has been appointed Professor of Practice in new land use planning practices

Susa Eräranta, architect, MSc (Econ), D.Sc. (Tech.) has been appointed Professor of Practice at Aalto University School of Engineering for a five-year term from 1 August 2022 to 31 July 2027. The field of professorship is new land use planning practices. The position is located in the Department of Built Environment, Land Use Planning and Transport Engineering Research Group.

Eräranta will continue in her current position as project director at the City of Helsinki where she works, among other things, on reducing emissions based on the city’s strategic climate goals and planning measures. She has more than eight years of hands-on experience in urban and regional planning. She has worked in managerial and planner positions for the cities of Espoo and Helsinki, as well as the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority (HSY).

Eräranta has previously worked as a visiting researcher and lecturer for several years and as a part-time teacher at the Department of Built Environment and the Department of Architecture and in the Master's program in Urban Studies and Planning.

‘I warmly welcome Susa Eräranta, who combines her strong practical experience of regional planning in the Helsinki metropolitan area with university-level research and teaching, which helps students to deal with issues related to land use planning, climate change and the circular economy’, says Gary Marquis, Dean of the School of Engineering.

'The future of cities is constantly being influenced by planning, the effects of which will extend for decades to come, both on human and planetary level. Planners face increasingly complex challenges that require the development of planning methods, processes, information sharing, and forms of collaboration. I find it very important that Aalto University wants to invest in these important themes also in teaching. I am happy to be part of the Aalto community to influence the cooperation between teaching, research and practice, and to bring my own experience to the use of students', says Susa Eräranta.

Eräranta graduated as an architect from Aalto University and has completed a master's degree in economics and business administration at Lappeenranta University of Technology. She received her PhD in technology at Aalto University in 2019 in the field of spatial planning. Her doctoral dissertation examined the impact of expert interaction structures on information flow and organisational learning through the concept of process memory.

Professor of practice positions are fixed in term and part-time in nature, intended to bring in leaders and experts from companies or the public sector to act as developers and bridge builders between the university and relevant industries. The job profile is weighted toward teaching.

Contact:

Susa Eräranta
[email protected]
Aalto University, School of. Engineering, Department of Built Environment