Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment

The mm-wave (30-300 GHz) and THz (> 300 GHz) bands in 6G wireless systems enable antenna arrays with massive numbers of elements to be packed into small volumes. This enables very precise or narrow beams, often known as pencil beamforming. Thereby single anchor positioning or radar sensing of the environment becomes feasible by performing the ranging via delay and angle measurements. The project to analyzes the performance and develops sensing methods with their dual use for communications. We build the bridge to imaging literature and technologies by signal processing based visibility analysis and accuracy limits of the environment mapping. We will also explore the impact of the weather conditions on the link and sensing performance with applications in smart traffic and industry.

Related I4WORLD research themes: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment; Sustainable Industries and Production

Location of the position: Centre for Wireless Communications – Radio Technologies (CWC-RT)

Supervisors: Prof. Markku Juntti (CWC-RT) and D.Sc. (Tech.) Timo Sukuvaara (Finnish Meteorological Institute)

Partners: Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) (Finland)

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted from variety of industrial and domestic sources, and they appear in the indoor air for example from construction materials and furniture. While incineration of concentrated VOCs is a common method, the challenges remain with low concentration VOCs. This work will focus on development of new adsorptive-catalytic materials for the treatment of low-concentration VOCs starting with formaldehyde and toluene. The work includes development and characterization of the functional materials, studying the competitive adsorption of VOCs and finding out the fundamental phenomena related to adsorption and degradation of adsorbed VOCs via catalysis. Advanced characterization including isotopic exchange and in situ/operando spectroscopy will be used in this work.

Related I4WORLD research themes: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment; Sustainable Industries and Production

Location of the position: Environmental and Chemical Engineering (ECE)

Supervisors: Doc. Satu Ojala (ECE), Prof. Laurence Pirault-Roy and Dr. Nicolas Bion (University of Poitiers)

Partner: University of Poitiers (France)         

Double Degree information: Possibility for a double degree between University of Oulu and University of Poitiers

Increasing monitoring of water distribution and wastewater networks leads to substantial data and a challenge to fully utilize its information content. In order to increase reliable knowledge of real-time and future network status, novel methods for analyzing measured multivariate data are needed e.g., from smart water meters. This work focuses on the development of robust and real-time data fusion methods intended to provide information for network management and diagnosis. In particular, multivariable (big) data analysis methods integrated with data quality control and predictive capability are of interest. 

Related I4WORLD themes: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment and Sustainable Industries and Production

Location of the position: Environmental and Chemical Engineering (ECE) or Water Energy and Environmental Engineering (WE3)

Supervisors: Assist. Prof. Pekka Rossi (WE3), Prof. Mika Ruusunen (ECE) and managing director Jouni Lähdemäki (Oulu waterworks)

Partner: Oulu waterworks (Finland)

This project sheds light on aerosol particles and their formation processes using novel lightsources such as synchrotrons and X-ray free electron lasers. Aerosol formation is a ubiquitous process in nature (e.g. sea salt aerosol production from breaking waves), and important part of many industrial spray-drying processes (e.g. pharmaceuticals, food powder production). Despite their importance, there is a lack of understanding how particles form in these processes and how their properties emerge from their chemical structure and morphology. In this project, the early-stage researcher carries out research on chemical and morphological characterization nanoaerosols at large-scale facilities and takes part to the development of the related instrumentation.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment

Location of the position: Nano and Molecular Systems (NANOMO)

Supervisors: Assoc. prof. Minna Patanen (NANOMO), Prof. Olle Björneholm (Uppsala University) and Dr. Noelle Walsh (MAX IV)

Partners: Uppsala University and MAX IV Laboratory (Sweden)

Double Degree information: Possibility for double degree between University of Oulu and Uppsala University

Catalytic materials are central in several fields of industry, but also in various environmental applications. Unfortunately, large part of the used catalytically active materials are expensive, rare or belong to the EU’s critical raw materials list. Therefore, there is a continuous seek for alternative catalytic materials. This work will focus on using industrial inorganic sidestreams as raw materials for catalysts. The work includes comprehensive characterization of raw-materials, modifying the raw-material properties and application of the final materials in environmental purposes. The final selection of the purpose will depend on material characteristics and may consider gas/water purification or utilization of gaseous pollutants. The work will contain in situ/operando characterization of the materials.

Related I4WORLD research themes: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment; Sustainable Industries and Production

Location of the position: Environmental and Chemical Engineering (ECE) and Fiber and Particle Engineering (FPE)

Supervisors: Doc. Satu Ojala (ECE), Dr. Mohammad Al Zeer (FPE) and Prof. Laurence Pirault-Roy (University of Poitiers)

Partners: University of Poitiers (France)

Double Degree information: Possibility for a double degree between University of Oulu and University of Poitiers

Tiny (nano- to micro-meter) aerosol particles are present everywhere in the atmosphere and play key roles in climate change, air pollution and transmission of pathogens. Spectroscopic and imaging methods using ultra-brilliant synchrotron X-rays provide crucial new information about the chemical composition, structure, and interactions of these particles. The doctoral researcher’s topic is to explore novel artificial intelligence (AI) tools to enhance the analysis of complex experimental spectra and images of nano-particles and to extract new information from sparse data sets and imbedded in signal noise. The goal is to develop AI methods to amplify the output of synchrotron experiments and accelerate discoveries in atmospheric science.

Related I4WORLD research themes: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment; Good health and Wellbeing

Location of the position: Center for Machine Vision and Signal Analysis (CMVS)

Supervisors: Prof. Guoying Zhao (CMVS), Associate Prof. Nonne Prisle (ATMOS) and Assist. Prof. Axel Eriksson (Lund University)

Partner: Lund University (Sweden)

Adaptation to climate change and its effects on society’s functions will need to be underpinned by better analysis of how river basin behaves, how new spatial and digital information can be applied and utilized. Besides developing green transition in basin management, there is a need to develop ways to utilize digital solutions to support environmental monitoring. We will use multidisciplinary approaches and novel automated unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imaging methods to support catchment and riverine restoration actions. The doctoral researcher will develop and apply UAV imaging/video analysis methods such as LSPIV, and structure-on-motion in a combination of visible RGB color and Thermal Infrared (TIR) sensors in close collaboration with various stakeholders and end-users.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment

Location of the position: Water, Energy, and Environmental Engineering (WE3)

Supervisors: Assoc. Prof. Hannu Marttila (WE3) and Dr. Pauliina Louhi (Natural Resources Institute Finland)

Partners: Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) (Finland), Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are complex inorganic materials that find applications as sorbents for phosphate recovery and low-dimensional quantum materials. We aim to understand these properties at the atomic level by a combination of multiscale theoretical calculations involving (1) molecular dynamics, (2) electronic-structure calculation of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) parameters, (3) spin dynamics simulations and experimental solid-state NMR (ssNMR). The candidate is expected to develop and apply computational protocols to model the effects caused by structural modification such as doping with paramagnetic metal centers, ion exchange, disorder, as well as the dynamics of LDHs by NMR probe molecules for the interpretation of ssNMR, electron spin resonance and magnetometric data.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment; Sustainable Industries and Production

Location of the position: NMR Research Unit

Supervisors: Prof. Juha Vaara (NMR) and Prof. Ulla Gro Nielsen (University of Southern Denmark)

Partners: University of Southern Denmark (Denmark)

Water pollution is global problem and more efficient and sustainable materials are needed for the treatment processes. Adsorbents are one potential option providing relatively simple process design and potential to recover valuable components from water. The topic for this project is to develop new adsorbents compositions containing geopolymers (amorphous aluminosilicates) as a matrix and for example biochar, chitosan, or bisphosphonates as added components. The work will consist of preparing and extensively characterizing the adsorbents as well as testing them for realistic water treatment scenarios. Thus, the goal is to develop new synergistic and practically feasible composite adsorbents and understand the linkage between their nano/microstructural features and performance in water treatment.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment

Location of the position: Fibre and Particle Engineering (FPE)

Supervisors: Assist. Prof. Tero Luukkonen (FPE) and Prof. Jouko Vepsäläinen (BioSO4, Chairman of the Board)

Partner: BioSO4 Oy

The number of satellites at low-Earth orbits (LEO) is rapidly increasing, thanks to new commercial ventures in communication (e.g., Starlink). Solar storms in the near-Earth environment can have dramatic effects on LEO satellites due to changes in atmospheric drag caused by atmospheric upwelling during ionospheric Joule heating. The goal of the project is to develop an ambitious global modeling method of Joule heating by combining measurements of ionospheric currents (AMPERE satellites) with electric fields (SuperDARN radars). The method will be verified by comparison to state-of-the art EISCAT_3D radar measurements, numerical simulations (WACCM-X), and atmospheric density variations (Swarm satellites). The project will lead to scientific breakthroughs in understanding space environment.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment

Location of the position: Space Physics and Astronomy (SPA)

Supervisors: Doc. Heikki Vanhamäki (SPA), Prof. Anita Aikio (SPA) and Prof. Pekka Verronen (FMI)

Partner: Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) (Finland)

New optical multispectral technology allows but is still rarely applied in practice, second-to-minute scale and multi-element analysis from river water quality and molecular composition. High resolution and simultaneously measured spectral parameters which have been previously unavailable open new possibilities for basin digital transfer, monitoring green transfer, and support monitoring implication of basin-scale management. We will focus on developing new automatic data and imaging analysis methods, which can integrate various time resolutions (wavelet coherence) and spatial scales (functional connectivity) in the basin scale. In combination with machine learning approaches candidate will develop new analytical and imaging methods for high-resolution optical water quality measurements.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment

Location of the position: Water, Energy, and Environmental Engineering (WE3)

Supervisors: Assoc. Prof. Hannu Marttila (WE3) and Assoc. Prof. Annalea Lohila (Finnish Meteorological Institute)

Partners: Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) (Finland)

Understanding the interplay between genetics and environment in tree growth, wood formation and carbon binding is important. Hyperspectral imaging is a promising tool in providing useful information on morphological, physical and chemical traits. However, the big challenge is to extract meaningful information from the large volume of data. The PhD research topic concerns complex hyperspectral data analysis, where the workflow from image capture to application requires competence in data processing and machine learning. Results will be further used in genetic analyses.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment

Location of the position: Mathematical Sciences (MATH)

Supervisors: Prof. Mikko Sillanpää (MATH), Assoc Prof. Patrik Waldmann (MATH), Research Prof. Katri Kärkkäinen (Luke) and Dr. Sonja Kujala (Luke)

Partners: Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)

Ice jam floods (IJFs) threaten considerable damage and risk to northern communities. The magnitude and timing of IJFs entirely on the northern rivers' ice processes, including the ice freeze-up, ice influence period, and ice breakup. Changing the ice processes and IJFs is considered one of the significant impacts of climate change in arctic regions. However, In-situ ice river observations often are complicated and non-affordable. The capability of remote sensing satellites to routinely image the Earth’s surface in a systematic, synoptic, and repetitive manner makes satellites potentially outstanding for collecting up-to-date information on river ice cover. This project aims to hybridize environmental and remotely sensed data to develop an ice routing framework to forecast IJFs. 

Related I4WORLD research theme: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment

Location of the position: Water, Energy, and Environmental Engineering (WE3)

Supervisors: Assoc Prof. Ali Torabi Haghighi (WE3) and Prof. Cintia Uvo (SYKE)

Partner: Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) (Finland)

Environmental flow (EF) refers to the magnitude, timing, and quality of required water to sustain the impacted aquatic ecosystems. The EF terms are usually used for altered flow below dams and hydropower. In this research project, we will design the criteria for defining EF for the lakes in cold climates. The case studies are of two urban lakes in the North of Oulu Pyykösjärvi and kyivjärvi. The remote sensing and in-situ data will be assimilated for calibrating the lakes' water quality model. A scenario-based lake water quality analysis will be done based on different transferred flow magnitudes from the oulujoki in different timing patterns. Finally, we optimize the water-energy Nexus by applying dynamic programming to obtain the best scenario for the magnitude and timing of EF.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment

Location of the position: Water, Energy, and Environmental Engineering (WE3)

Supervisors: Assoc Prof. Ali Torabi Haghighi (WE3) and Dr. Nasim Fazel (SYKE)

Partner: Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) (Finland)

Connectivity is a key component of metacommunity persistence, particularly in seasonally variable environments. Connectivity between lakes/ponds is greatest soon after the snowmelt-induced spring flood whereas lakes become hydrologically isolated as summer progresses. We aim to use drone-based imaging to quantify seasonal changes in habitat connectivity and relate these to changes in microbial biodiversity. This project addresses a central question of modern metacommunity ecology: are local communities controlled by site-specific filtering (e.g., nutrients, fish presence) or regionally homogenizing dispersal? The project reinforces the recently established collaboration between two research stations, Oulanka (Univ Oulu) and Zackenberg, Greenland (Aarhus University).

Related I4WORLD research theme: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment

Location of the position: Ecology and Genetics (EG)

Supervisors: Prof. Timo Muotka (EG), Dr. Kaisa-Leena Huttunen (EG), Dr. Jussi Jyväsjärvi (EG) and Prof. Torben Christensen (Aarhus University)

Partner: Aarhus University (Denmark)

The world ore deposits have largely been mined, a current trend is mining poorer deposits and moving to areas earlier impassable or protected, typical in the Arctic. However, mining poor deposits may not be environment friendly, and the Arctic is especially vulnerable for environmental disturbance. Sustainable, passive water treatment methods are urgently needed. We have identified moss species that can uptake heavy metals with the aid of microbes, called phytoremediation. The doctoral researcher’s role is to visualize both microbial symbionts and metals in moss tissues by fluorescent protein tagging, fluorescent in situ hybridization, fluorescent, transmission and scanning electron microscopy. The goal is to develop efficient moss-microbe combinations for phytoremediation of mining wastewaters.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment; Sustainable Industries and Production

Location of the position: Ecology and Genetics (EG)

Supervisors: prof. Anna-Maria Pirttilä, Dr. Janne Koskimäki (EG), Dr. Kaisa Lehosmaa (EG) and and Minna Männistö (Luke)

Partners: Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)

Requirements for sustainable production processes drive the industry towards energy and material efficiency. In this context, digitalization can play a major role. The aim of this work is to identify and mathematically model wastewater treatment processes to produce a digital twin. This will enable process and operation optimization targeting energy efficiency. The work includes both data- and knowledge-based identification of the process studied, and the development of a predictive model of process-based emissions and energy consumption. Novel tools are to be developed for automatic calibration and maintenance of the developed digital twin.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment

Location of the position: Environmental and Chemical Engineering (ECE) and Water Energy and Environmental Engineering (WE3)

Supervisors: Prof. Mika Ruusunen (ECE), Doc. Elisangela Heiderscheidt (WE3) and managing director Jouni Lähdemäki (Oulu waterworks)

Partner: Oulu waterworks

This research is focused on treatment of persistent and difficult to treat substances in wastewaters by manufacturing and design of photocatalysts. The target treated compounds are for example drug residues or other substances used for medical activities present in hospital and wastewater treatment plant waters. Photocatalytic treatment could be the last section in the wastewater treatment plant when all other compounds are already removed or already next to source (installed as a part of the hospitals treatment unit) to decrease the amount of medical substances by converting these to harmless or in the form that they can be treated easier in the wastewater treatment plant. One important aspect is also energy efficiency. The aim is to find out the photocatalytic removal efficiency for various drug residues or other substances used for medical activities. The operation parameters (such as T, concentrations, catalyst properties, composition ow wastewater) will be determined using various measuring and analyzing technologies. The durability and deactivation of photocatalysts are also studied by versatile characterizations (X-ray methods, IR, Raman, electron microscopy among others), and reaction mechanisms and kinetics are derived. Last part of the work is sustainability analyses.

Related I4WORLD research themes: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment; Sustainable Industries and Production

Location of the position: Environmental and Chemical Engineering (ECE)

Supervisors: Doc. Mika Huuhtanen (ECE) and Prof. Sergio Morales Torres (University of Granada)

Partner: University of Granada (Spain)

Micro and nano plastics (MNP) are widely considered as an emerging threat, even crossing the planetary boundary threshold. Yet, information on the atmospheric processing and transport of MNP particles is still scarce, although accumulating evidence suggests that MNP are abundant in the troposphere. The doctoral researcher’s research topic is to study the role of MNP particles in atmospheric condensation (heterogeneous nucleation) and ice formation (deposition/immersion nucleation) processes focusing either on modelling or imaging and cloud activation/ice nucleation experiments. Expected outcome of the work are parameterizations that can be utilized to describe interaction of MNP particles and water vapour from simple CFD models for lung deposition to large-scale atmospheric transport models.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Clean water, biodiversity and environment; Good Health and Wellbeing

Location of the position: Nano and Molecular Systems (NANOMO)

Supervisors: Doc. Jussi Malila (NANOMO), Acad. Prof. Ari Laaksonen (Finnish Meteorological Institute) and additional co-supervisor(s) from UOULU or FMI depending on the exact focus of research    (modelling/experimental)

Partner: Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) (Finland)

We live in an era of massive environmental changes that strongly alter ecosystems and biodi-versity. The ecological impacts are evident in Finland where land use has heavily intensified during the past century and temperature rise is projected to be larger than closer to the equa-tor. Several technologies have emerged as efficient tools to support ecosystem monitoring and management. In this project, we will develop a novel approach combining satellite re-mote sensing imagery, environmental DNA (eDNA; from plant material, air, etc.) and machine learning. We will investigate spatiotemporal patterns of biodiversity change in forest and peatland ecosystems in Finland during the past 40 years. The research helps to guide climate risk management and land use practices in peatlands and forests.

Related I4WORLD research themes: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment; Sustainable Industries and Production

Location of the position: Ecology and Genetics (EG)

Supervisors: Ass. Prof. Stefan Prost (EG), Senior curator Marko Mutanen (EG) and Senior Scientist Aleksi Räsänen (Luke).

Partners: Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)

Being able to read and monitor biodiversity is severely hindered by the realities that most species remain un-described and identification of others is inefficient and inaccurate based on classical tools and due to shortage of species experts. Unprecedented rapid development of genomics technologies during the last years has opened new avenues for efficient survey and monitory of biodiversity as well as automated identification and standardized delimitation of species. The doctoral research will focus of developing and/or testing novel high-throughput DNA sequencing tools and approaches to find solutions to the prevailing predicament rendering us largely bio-illiterate, and therefore to help the humankind to overcome the biodiversity crisis.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment

Location of the position: Ecology and Genetics (EG)

Supervisors: Senior curator Marko Mutanen (EG), Ass. professor. Stefan Prost (EG) and Prof. Niklas Wahlberg (Lund University)

Partners: Lund University (Sweden)

Lack of clean water is a current Global problem. The largest challenges are caused by the emerging contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals that are poorly degraded in the conventional water treatment. This work will focus on development of novel waste-based materials (originating from inorganic industrial sidestreams or waste biomass) for water treatment. The materials should work as the adsorbents, and be able to be regenerated using catalysis. Fundamental information on characteristics and performance of these materials will be achieved using advanced characterization techniques. The study will also contain toxicity studies to ensure the safety of the adsorbents prepared from the recycled materials.

Related I4WORLD research themes: Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment; Sustainable Industries and Production

Location of the position: Environmental and Chemical Engineering (ECE)

Supervisors: Doc. Satu Ojala (ECE), Prof. Laurence Pirault-Roy and Dr. Gwendoline Lafaye (University of Poitiers) and Dr. Marjo Huovinen (University of Eastern Finland)

Partners: University of Poitiers (France), University of Eastern Finland and Oulu waterworks (Finland)