Coordinators, partners and graduates of the MSc European Forestry program visited IIASA on 29 September 2026. Twenty visitors from at least eight countries came as part of the alumni event held alongside the program's graduation ceremony at BOKU University in Vienna.
This year, BOKU University hosted the graduation ceremony for MSc European Forestry students who have completed their studies over the past few years. As part of the career and alumni get-together in Vienna , representatives of the program's consortium partners and alumni visited IIASA, where dozens of students did their internship over the past years, and some of the program graduates are currently research staff.
© JohannaSan Pedro | IIASA
Figure 1. Dr. Timo Tokola, Professor at The University of Eastern Finland and one of the Coordinators of the MSc EF Programme, sharing insights during the discussion session.
The MSc European Forestry is a two-year Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's program and one of the oldest Erasmus Mundus programs still running. It is coordinated by the University of Eastern Finland. Its consortium partners are AgroParisTech (France), the University of Freiburg (Germany), the University of Lleida (Spain), Transilvania University of Brașov (Romania), and Wageningen University (the Netherlands). Students spend their first year at the University of Eastern Finland and their second year at a partner university, and graduate with a joint or double degree. The program prepares future forestry professionals to deal with climate change and natural disturbances, the growing demand for biomass, biodiversity loss, and the provision of ecosystem services.
IIASA regularly hosts MSc European Forestry students for the applied period of their Master's. Since 2019, ten students have done this placement in the Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services (AFE) Research Group of the IIASA Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program. Their work focused on forestry and natural disturbances. Some alumni have stayed at IIASA. One is Johanna San Pedro, who graduated from the program in 2023 with a specialization in spatial and ecological modelling at the University of Lleida, now works on wildfire modelling with the FLAM. Another one is Andrey Lessa Derci Augustynczik, a Research Scholar in Integrated Biosphere Futures Research Group, where he works on forest sector and biophysical modelling.
© Jelena Zrno | IIASA
Figure 2. Dr. Eunbeen Park presenting one of the research projects showcasing the application of models in forest research.
The visit gave guests an introduction to IIASA, its research, and its facilities. Researchers from the AFE group Florian Kraxner, Andrey Krasovskiy, Colin Johnstone, Eunbeen Park, Hyun-Woo Jo and Johanna San Pedro presented their ongoing work and projects dealing with forestry and natural disturbances from local to global scales using AFE’s G4M and FLAM models.
The visit ended with a discussion of new research collaborations and of future applied-period placements for European Forestry students at IIASA. The visitors left great memories and were grateful for both research contents and excellent schloss tour by Katherine.
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