CEE Director of Policy to take up role at University of Lapland

Director of Policy and founding member of the Centre for Energy Ethics, Dr Sean Field has been recruited by the University of Lapland as part of a push to bring high-level international researchers to Finland. With funding from the Research Council of Finland, Sean will serve as the Associate Professor of Energy Transitions Governance within the Faculty of Law, starting 1 August 2026.

This funding will assist Sean in the launch of a brand new research project: “Arctic Transitions: Energy and Climate Governance Horizons in the Far North”. This research will examine how rapidly changing climatic conditions and a race to extract rare and valuable earth materials have made Arctic regions the focus of new extractive possibilities, as well as a laboratory for testing who controls these possibilities.

With the Centre since its inception and part of the Energy Ethics Research Group prior to that, Sean has been an incredibly active member of the CEE team. He has co-organised two major conferences – Energy Ethics 2021 and the Art of Energy, and Energy Ethics 2023 – founded the Energy Cafe event series, authored or co-authored nine blog posts (with another on its way), and assisted with many more individual events, activities and projects. His energy and hard-work were invaluable in helping to develop the Masters in Energy Policy and Finance.

CEE Director Professor Mette High commented on Sean’s departure: “This is such a fantastic opportunity and extremely well-deserved! Sean will be sorely missed at the University of St Andrews where he has contributed so much. Sean’s energy, enthusiasm and skills are unmatched. I can’t wait to see what he makes happen at the University of Lapland.”

Sean’s appointment brings to an end eight years at the University of St Andrews in the Department of Social Anthropology, punctuated by an 18-month secondment at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. All of the staff and researchers here at the Centre for Energy Ethics wish him the best of luck for this next chapter and look forward to future collaborations.