As a public outreach, Adj. Prof. Mika Lastusaari had a presentation about chemistry in one of Turku Teacher Training School’s IB line’s Integrated Science course visitor lectures. Hannah and Sami also got to tell why they have come to study chemistry and what inspires them, and also demonstrated color change and afterglow with the compulsory praise for inorganic chemistry! The “set” is shown in the photos.
Category Archives: teaching
Anssi Peuronen has been appointed as an Adjunct Professor

Anssi Peuronen, PhD, was appointed Adjunct Professor by Rector’s decision on January 12, 2021. We interviewed him with three questions:
1. What is your specialty in the field of inorganic chemistry and what interests you the most?
My interest lies in structural research and the study of how the information of the exact atomic structure of a compound/material as well as its organisation in the solid state can be utilised to understand and predict its properties and used in the design of new functional materials. In particular, I focus on the study of crystalline materials using X-ray crystallography, albeit other methods such as NMR, mass spectrometry, and computational chemistry are also important in my research. My current research topics include ion-selective supramolecular compounds, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and catalytically active compounds wherein determining the exact atomic structure is often particularly important.
2. How did you end up in Turku?
I am originally from an area called Pohjanmaa (Ostrobothnia), but I attended a university for the first time in Jyväskylä, Department of Chemistry, in the early 2000s. After graduating with a master’s degree (2009), I worked at the University of Jyväskylä’s Department of Chemistry as an Assistant and later as a University Teacher and a Doctoral student. My dissertation on Inorganic and Analytical chemistry was completed in 2014, after which I worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in a project funded by the Academy of Finland (2014–2018) in the research group of Manu Lahtinen and as a visiting researcher in the research group of Professor Kari Rissanen. I joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Turku with the help of postdoctoral funding granted by the Academy of Finland in 2018. While working in Turku, I paid a 6-month research visit to the University of Sheffield, in Professor Lee Brammer‘s research group. After my postdoctoral term, I will continue in the Inorganic Materials Chemistry research group as a University Teacher.
3. What do you tend to do in your free time?
I spend my free time with my two kids and by planning home renovation projects. Consuming music and producing music-like sounds as well as outdoor activities, fishing, and dreaming of a classic car are my favourite hobbies.
Bachelor of Science students 2018
During the months of November and December we have had the privilege to host students for their Bachelor of Science laboratory work. We hope you have enjoyed the laboratory work and its ups and downs and continue with us further in your studies. There is lots of interesting research ahead!
From left to right: Matti, Teppo, Roosa, Otto and Herkko. Veera is unfortunately missing from the picture.

New publication about learning approaches
If you’re interested in teaching and learning you can check out this new publication about students learning approaches by Mika and his collaborators.
Lastusaari, M., Laakkonen, E., and Murtonen, M., ChemApproach: validation of a questionnaire to assess the learning approaches of chemistry students, Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. 17 (2016) 723-730.
Read online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C5RP00216H
Course update for autumn 2016
The teaching section of our pages has now been updated with the correct links for the B.Sc and M.Sc courses held this autumn. You can go via links into the courses own websites or the current syllabus where more detailed information can be found.
UTUPS helps with pedagogical support
A new teaching enviroment has been launched to help with university pedagogical studies for university teachers and doctoral students at the University of Turku. If you’re clever enough you can spot familiar faces when browsing at the pages or looking the videos. :)
UTUPS news in intranet (in Finnish, only UTU accounts)
http://utupedasupport.utu.fi/ is the link to the teaching enviroment for those in need. Password can be found from the news page above (only UTU accounts).
Teaching 2015-2016
B.Sc and M.Sc courses given in our laboratory on academic year of 2015-2016 have been updated with corresponding links to the courses into our teaching page. You can register to the courses via Nettiopsu.
! Note that some information in the courses web pages is still preliminary. !