Where do you get your educational passion from?
''I would say my educational passion comes from two closely connected components: First, I love learning new things myself; developing and teaching new course activities (just like conducting research) gives me an avenue to explore new topics or try out different learning activities. It allows me to expand both my knowledge and skills. Second, I am convinced that lifelong learning is essential for personal fulfilment and for navigating a complex, rapidly changing world like ours. Contributing to somebody else’s learning trajectory and sparking their interest or ambition to address environmental challenges in their professional careers gives me a strong sense of purpose and fulfilment.''
What teaching moment has always stayed with you?
''During my bachelor program i followed the course Energy and Society. We went on short field trips to several family homes (one belonged to the course lecturer, and the others to his friends or other professors), where we saw how people were using, for example, photovoltaic systems, new insulation materials and smart air circulation systems in their homes to reduce energy consumption and utilise low-carbon energy sources. I learnt by doing, which brought the theory to life. This experience was a key reason for me to study environmental sciences and specialise in renewable energy and resources.''
What do you hope to pass on to students?
''I hope to pass on my enthusiasm for environmental science and for the ways in which studying it can empower students to make a difference in their personal lives and professional careers. A core message I hope students take with them is the essential role of interdisciplinarity for solving environmental and sustainability challenges. These topics are at the intersection of natural and social sciences. Understanding, assessing and addressing sustainability, environmental and energy challenges requires insights into not only underlying physical or ecological processes, but also how human behavior, governance and broader societal dynamics shape both the challenges and their solutions. So, for students it is important to not only learn about the natural-science-based approaches to identify and analyze these challenges, but also the ability to place them in the context of societal processes.''
What did you learn from your students?
''I learned from students to value interdisciplinary education even more. Students come from very diverse backgrounds, study programs and cultures, and bring different perspectives, ideas and knowledge to the table. That can provide a fresh perspective on an environmental challenge or prompt me to reconsider my own assumptions.''
What would you like to try out again in your teaching?
''Although I have final exams in the courses I currently teach, I am not a fan of exams - they tend to make students focus on short-term studying and then quickly forget about the material right afterwards (as I also did when I was a student). In my previous courses, I replaced traditional exams with individual assignments where students had a lot of freedom to select the topic they were interested in. I believe this freedom encourages deeper engagement with the material and therefore results in more genuine learning. The main challenge nowadays is, of course, how to design such an assignment to be GenAI-proof…''