Computers were the other thread. I took my first programming course at a young age, and databases have been part of every job I have had since, from Access and Excel to SQL, Power BI and Python. In a factory, that often meant I could see in the data what people on the floor could only sense.
After years in industry as a quality management specialist and supply chain analyst, I noticed that I was always firefighting. I solved one problem and immediately moved on to the next. The work was interesting, but I never had time to look back, understand why the problems kept appearing, and ask what had really changed. I wanted deeper questions, and I wanted to bring my industry experience into an international environment and take on a new challenge. The Nordic countries offered that, and a calm place for my family too. I applied to LUT University in Finland and spent two years there.
Energy came into the picture gradually. I come from a region where energy is so cheap that people rarely think about what it is worth, and I was curious about energy that does not run out and does not harm the environment. At LUT, my focus naturally shifted toward electrification. I co-authored two papers on electric heavy-duty vehicles and their impact on regional electricity use. Studying how electrifying transport changes energy demand showed me how closely industry, energy and regions are linked. A summer school on electric mobility then turned that curiosity into a clear direction: the broader green energy transition.
For my Master’s thesis I received a grant to study the regional green transition in Kymenlaakso. I surveyed 58 companies about their green actions and investments and built an interactive map of the results for the Chamber of Commerce of Kymenlaakso, which is now linked from their homepage. Once again, data and programming turned out to be the most useful things I brought with me.
Alongside research, I work as a technical information evaluator for AI companies, checking claims in language model outputs against the scientific literature. It keeps me close to new technology.
In August 2026 I started as a doctoral researcher at the University of Oulu Kerttu Saalasti Institute, in the Sustainable Energy Business group and the ARVO project. Billions of euros are heading to Northern Finland for hydrogen, wind and biogas projects, but large contractors tend to buy from their usual global suppliers, and small local firms are often too small to compete one by one. I am developing a decision-support tool that evaluates local SMEs and maps which nearby firms could work together to match the volume of a mega-project. The aim is simple: more of the value created by the green transition should stay in the region.
Outside work, I still enjoy building things, from simple apps to LEGO sets. I like music and reading about history and culture. Most of my free time goes to my family and to travel, and there is always another city on our list.
Author: Abolfazl (Ilia) Moradian, Doctoral Researcher, University of Oulu Kerttu Saalasti Institute, Sustainable Energy Business Research Group (SEB)
Photo: Juha Seppänen
In Kerttu Saalasti Institute's blog we write about the topics of the Institute's research groups, micro entrepreneurship education and the Institute's general topics. The authors are researchers, experts and members of networks.