Hej/Moi/Hello/Привет! I'm glad you found here. I'm Karoliina Pulkkinen, postdoctoral researcher at University of Helsinki.

 

I work on integrated history and philosophy of science, where much of my research focusses on how values influence scientific practice. At Aleksanteri Institute, I investigate the role of values in Soviet science and technology. One of the aims of this research is to determine how past science can inform our normative frameworks regarding the management of social, political, and epistemic values in scientific practice.

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Alongside my interest in values, I also work on philosophy and history of chemistry and climate science. My previous postdoc concerned the role of values in climate modelling. The project "Values, Choices, and Uncertainties in Climate Modelling" was a collaboration between philosophers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and climate scientists at Stockholm University.

My PhD research focussed on epistemic values in the development of periodic systems of chemical elements, including the system of the Russian chemist Dmitrii Mendeleev. The results of the research have been published in Philosophy of Science, Ambix, and Centaurus. I earned a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge in 2019. (Due to covid-19, I graduated in 2022.)

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If you are a student at KTH, you might recognise me as the principal instructor of Ethics of Medical Technology 2020-21 and a seminar instructor for the Tamos course. I was also a seminar supervisor for Philosophy of Science and Ethics and Politics of Science and Medicine at University of Cambridge. In Finland, I have been a Principal Instructor for courses on history and philosophy of Soviet science and technology.

I am one of the editors and co-founders of Jargonium, blog for history and philosophy of chemistry. I am also an associate editor of Foundations of Chemistry. Aside from the above, I also edit Chemical Intelligence newsletter for Society of History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC).

I help to organise TINT's Perspectives on Science -seminar series at University of Helsinki and run the Joint Commission Online Colloquium in HPS. 

Don't hesitate to drop me a line if you have any questions. My email is karoliina.pulkkinen [at] helsinki.fi