In May 2021, I will start my job as a full-time citizen of two cities, as a professor at the Estonian Maritime Academy of the Tallinn University of Technology. In this blog, I discuss shipping, ports, and Helsinki and Tallinn. I also link my blog to Twitter and my LinkedIn page, to enable a wider discussion.
My name may have predicted my path – I got my first name from the Ullanlinna district in Helsinki, where I lived the first few years of my life in the early 1970s. My middle name, Pirita, comes from a district in Tallinn that my parents had visited before I was born. In Ullanlinna, the sea and the harbours were close by. As a child, I learned to ride a bike on the quayside of South Harbour which was empty on Sundays, but I only got to visit the beaches of Pirita in the early 1980s.
I have made my career in the maritime sector and shipping companies, universities, and the public sector. I have cooperated with Estonians since 2007, working, for example, on analyses of port traffic flows and the Tallinn–Helsinki tunnel. At the same time, I have become familiar with Tallinn and Estonia, even though I do not (yet) speak the language.
My first blogs will be available on the date of publication on May 1, 2021. I deal with current topics in Finnish foreign trade logistics, traffic between Helsinki and Tallinn, the effects of environmental regulation on maritime transport, urban water transport and Estonia. Other upcoming topics include:
- Situation report on the Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel
- Are there too many ports in Finland?
- China’s impact on logistics chains and shipping
- Structure and challenges of the Finnish maritime cluster
- Maritime automation and digitalization
- Arctic maritime transport
- The future of cruise traffic
- More maritime environmental issues: nitrogen oxides, and black and gray waters
Add a comment below if you have other topics in mind that you would like me to cover in these blogs, so we can continue the discussion.
Photo: Jonne Räsänen
Tales of Talsinki 