Rate My Professor Marko Keskinen

Marko Keskinen is an Associate Professor in Water and Environmental Engineering within the Department of Built Environment at Aalto University School of Engineering. He holds a D.Sc. (Tech.) degree from Aalto University, awarded in 2010 for his doctoral dissertation on integrated water resources management in the Mekong River Basin, and a Master's degree in Engineering and Technology from Helsinki University of Technology in 2003. Keskinen has been a University Lecturer in water and environmental engineering at Aalto since 2013 and was appointed Associate Professor in January 2020, with his position tenured at the beginning of 2024. As Director of the Master's Programme in Water and Environmental Engineering (WAT), he has implemented interactive, student-centered teaching methods, earning the Aalto University School of Engineering Award for Achievements in Teaching in 2015. He has also served as Senior Adviser on Development Policy at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in 2019 and from 2011 to 2012, focusing on water-related development cooperation in East Africa and Asia, EU and UN development policy, and water diplomacy initiatives with organizations such as the EU and OSCE. Furthermore, Keskinen has acted as a visiting researcher at Cần Thơ University and participated in international research projects for the Mekong River Commission, the M-POWER network, and the Asian Development Bank.

Keskinen's research focuses on water resources management and governance, examining the interactions between water, society, sustainability, and security across scales from global to local. His key interests include integrated water management approaches, transboundary water cooperation particularly in the Mekong Basin, the water-energy-food nexus, water diplomacy, and multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary science-policy-stakeholder interactions. His work contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals such as SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions). Notable publications include 'Future changes in Mekong River hydrology: impact of climate change and reservoir operation on discharge' (Lauri et al., Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 2012), 'The water-energy-food nexus and the transboundary context: insights from large Asian rivers' (Keskinen et al., Water, 2016), 'Water-energy-food nexus in a transboundary river basin: The case of Tonle Sap Lake, Mekong River Basin' (Keskinen et al., Water, 2015), and 'Water diplomacy paths – An approach to recognise water diplomacy actions in shared waters' (Keskinen et al., Journal of Hydrology, 2021). He currently leads projects including 'Global connections and collaborative solutions for sustainable water security' (GloWater) and 'Cross-regional learning for transformative water diplomacy' (CroWD).