Senior Researcher
+358 50 318 5785
panu.pihkala@youthresearch.fi
Panu Pihkala is an adjunct professor (Title of Docent) of environmental theology at the Faculty of Theology in the University of Helsinki, Finland. Pihkala is the leading Finnish scholar in eco-anxiety research, and he is known internationally as an expert in interdisciplinary eco-emotion studies. Many of his research articles from the 2020s have over 40 000 views and several hundred citations each. Pihkala has published two books in Finnish about eco-emotions and he was awarded several prizes for them, including the National Prize for Adult Education (Sivistyspalkinto) in 2018 by The Finnish Lifelong Learning Foundation (Kansanvalistusseura) and a national environmental education award in 2019 by FEE.
Pihkala is a sought-after keynote speaker and often gives interviews to various media. He serves as an advisor for many organizations, such as the Climate Mental Health Network, with whom he worked on creating the popular Climate Emotions Wheel. Pihkala hosts the international podcast Climate Change and Happiness together with leading environmental psychologist Dr. Thomas Doherty.
Pihkala has increasingly co-operated with the Finnish Youth Research Society (FYRS) in the 2020s, especially in relation to eco-emotions felt by young people. In early 2025, a special issue of the journal Youth and Globalization was published, where he worked as a guest editor together with Research Professor Sofia Laine from FYRS. Pihkala participates in many ways to Planetary Youth Research.