Riina Antikainen, Director of SYKE’s Strategic Programme for Sustainable Circular Economy has passed away on 21 April 2020. The sad news about the loss of our dear colleague on a beautiful spring day is heart-breaking and touches all of us at SYKE and many collaborators in Finland and internationally.
Riina Antikainen’s professional interests included circular economy, green economy, sustainable use of natural resources and life-cycle thinking. Environmental issues were important already in her childhood home, which gave her a good starting point for her environmental science studies. She had a PhD in Agriculture and Forestry and was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Helsinki and at the University of Eastern Finland. She worked in SYKE since 1999.
Riina Antikainen will be remembered as an extremely pleasant and friendly as well as systematic and ambitious colleague. She was always forward-looking and often ahead of her time with her ideas. Already in 2013, she wrote a co-authored report on the opportunities of green growth, which is more than timely now with the New Green Deal for Europe.
Riina Antikainen returned from a long sick-leave at the start of March, happy and full of energy. She was excited planning ahead, and still on Monday she was making new exciting research project plans with us.
Work and our SYKE working collective were important for Riina Antikainen. She looked after her colleagues and her staff members wholeheartedly. She had left a message in last week’s workshop, which we will carry with us when we continue our work: “It is wonderful to work in such a diverse and smart group. SYKE is a great organization that does so much important work to advance a sustainable society. It important for me to be here doing this work.”
For us at SYKE, Riina’s passing away marks a huge loss as a colleague and a friend. We are thankful for having been able to work with her and will remember her warmly.