Welcome to the FinnCERES Annual Seminar: Bio-based Futures, on May 15-16, 2025 in Espoo and online! This year, we will highlight the potential of sustainable practices in the circular bioeconomy, with a focus on alternative feedstocks, circular carbon solutions, and novel utilization of forest industry side streams. By bringing together expertise from diverse fields, we hope to inspire collaboration and innovation toward a more resource-efficient and sustainable future.
Join us for the latest updates from our invited top experts as well as the bio-based materials research community at Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre Finland.
The seminar will be organized as a hybrid event in Dipoli, Espoo, as well as online. Please note that online participation is open for everyone and free of charge, while on-site participation is by invitation only. For further information and inquiries, please contact us at info (at) finnceres.fi.

Keynote speakers
Orlando Rojas, University of British Columbia

Prof. Rojas is a Canada Excellence Research Chair at the University of British Columbia and leads the UBC BioProducts Institute. He is also a visiting professor at Aalto University and the first Latin-American to receive the Anselme Payen Award from the American Chemical Society. Prof. Rojas is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (2013), and has received the Tappi Nanotechnology Award (2015) and membership in the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (2017). He is an adjunct professor at NC State University and a Distinguished Professor at multiple universities in China. He has chaired Aalto’s Materials Platform, led the FinnCERES Flagship, and co-PI of the Academy of Finland’s Center of Excellence in Molecular Engineering of Biosynthetic Hybrid Materials (HYBER). His recent research grants include the ERC-Advanced Grant and a Horizon H2020 project. His core research focuses on nanostructures from renewable materials and their utilization in multiphase systems.
Jason Hallett, Imperial College London

Prof. Jason Hallett received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He joined Imperial College, first with a Marshall-Sherfield Postdoctoral Fellowship in Sustainable Chemistry and in 2014 was appointed a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering, before promotion to Reader in 2016 and Professor in 2018. He performs research involving the solution behaviour of ionic liquids and the use of ionic liquids in the production of lignocellulosic biofuels, sustainable chemical feedstocks, vaccine manufacturing and waste recycling (particularly for metal-contaminated solid materials). He has authored over 200 articles and holds more than 10 patents. Prof Hallett currently serves as co-Director of the Supergen Bioenergy Hub. He is also co-founder of 7 spin-out companies based on the group's research.
Joseph Samec, Stockholm University

Joseph Samec is a professor at Stockholm University, Sweden. He received his Ph.D. from Stockholm University in 2005 with Prof. Bäckvall as supervisor. He did a short research exchange for Prof. C. P. Casey at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. After a postdoctoral training with Prof. R. H. Grubbs at California Institute of Tecnology during 2006-2007, he was appointed as Assistant Professor at University of Uppsala in Sweden. Currently, he is Professor at Stockholm University. His research interest focuses on green chemistry in organic synthesis and biomass processing and applications. In 2012, he founded RenFuel, a start-up company that produces biofuels from Lignin.
Tentative program of the seminar
The full program will be published soon.
Thursday May 15, 2025
8.15 Registration & breakfast
8.45 Online stream starts
9.00 Welcoming words Monika Österberg, Tekla Tammelin FinnCERES Scientific Principal Investigators
9.10 Keynote: Orlando Rojas, University of British Columbia
9.45 Session 1: Alternative feedstocks
10.30-11.00 Coffee break
11.00 Session 2: Circular carbon
12.30-13.30 Lunch break
13.30 Keynote: Jason Hallett, Imperial College London
14.05 Session 3: Bio-based futures
14.35-15.00 Coffee break
15.00 Session 3 continues
15:55 Pitching of FinnCERES Proof-of-Concepts projects
16.30 Streaming ends
16.30-18.00 Poster session & drinks
18.30 Seminar Dinner
Friday May 16, 2025
8.15 Coffee
8.45 Online stream starts
9.00 Keynote: Joseph Samec, Stockholm University
9.35 Session 4: Holistic utilization - Forest industry sidestreams
10.15-11.00 Coffee break & poster session
11.00 Session 5: Secondary materials: Increasing circularity
12.00 Concluding remarks and poster session awards
Monika Österberg, Tekla Tammelin
FinnCERES Scientific Principal Investigators
12.10 Streaming ends
12.10-13.00 Lunch & end of the event