Openings: Traces of Aalto

A wave, aalto in Finnish, flows ashore. Again, again, and again. Sooner or later, this will leave a trace. On a sandy beach, immediately, and after centuries on a rocky shore.

AALTO UNIVERSITY researchers and other personnel, students, publications and inventions have a similar impact. It is impossible to know in advance what kinds of traces, when and where, we will leave behind, and it is not always easy to discover this through backtracking either. But our actions always have effects, and that’s why we are responsible for them.

Thomas Midgley Jr. was a graduate of the famed Cornell University and an award-winning chemist. He is said to have been the most harmful scientist in world history, as he played a significant role in the discovery of CFC compounds, also known as freons, and the development of leaded petrol. Are the environmental and health problems caused by these inventions the traces of Cornell?

How substantial are the traces we leave? How deep, permanent? In Otaniemi or on the other side of the world? Positive or negative – and according to whom?

The variety of different traces is enormous. Some are easy to notice and we can try to measure their extent: carbon footprints, ecological footprints, water footprints... But our educational, economic, aesthetic or artistic trace – how should these be understood? In any case, they have a major and multifaceted impact on our wellbeing. The footprints of Alvar Aalto are so diverse that it is not possible to see them from one viewpoint.

At Aalto University, we have a unique opportunity to add to our understanding of various ways to influence the world. Physicists and chemists have the ability to see different things than construction technology experts, finance specialists, software researchers and film directors; bringing skills together allows you to see more.

As members of the Aalto community, we have the ability and also the obligation to perform acts that have a major positive impact long into the future. Set in motion waves that will shape the Earth both here and elsewhere, at once and in the coming decades and centuries. Some of our actions amount to no more than a little splash that wanes away before anyone notices the humble beginnings of a new channel, while others can grow to an unpredictable scale. A minor act now can become something major tomorrow.

This issue of Aalto University Magazine deals with the traces of Aalto and the Aalto community, focusing equally with the already-realised and the yetunborn. And with the traces the rest of the world leaves on us. I hope that this magazine leaves its trace on you, too.

Ossi Naukkarinen

Vice President, Research