3.2.2025
Professor of Practice Julia Korkman receives awards – honoured for forensic psychology and science communication
Julia Korkman is Professor of Practice in Forensic Psychology at Åbo Akademi University and Co-Investigator of one of the university’s centres of excellence, Psych-Aid. During the Finland-Swedish Psychologist Days on 30-31 January, Julia Korkman was named the Finland-Swedish Psychologist of the Year 2025. The prize is awarded by the Finnish Psychological Association, which is the trade union for psychologists in Finland.
Korkman is awarded the prize for her contribution to raising the profile of forensic psychology in Finland and internationally. She is also the initiator of Finland’s first national specialisation programme in forensic psychology. Korkman is not only a leading voice in formulating European guidelines for the interviewing of children in criminal proceedings, she has also made the world of forensic psychology accessible to a wider audience through her book Minnets Makt.
– It’s great to receive this award and to have forensic psychology recognised in this positive way. I had the privilege of having Professor Pekka Santtila as a mentor when I started to take an interest in forensic psychology, and with his support, the planning of the specialisation programme also came about. It is also wonderful that forensic psychology at ÅAU has grown over the years and that we, with Professor Jan Antfolk at the helm, have managed to gather a fine group of inspired researchers. At present, we are actively researching sexual offences and their investigations, criminal investigations involving children and how AI could support criminal investigations, and in the PsychAID project the focus is on asylum investigations, says Korkman.
Art has enormous potential that could be utilised even more
On 3 February 2025, Korkman was also awarded the Science Communication Prize 2025 by The Finnish Association of Science Editors and Journalists. Julia Korkman and her team received the award for the concert series Songs for the Criminal Record, which popularises science by combining music and lectures. The songs were performed in the language they were written: Finnish, Swedish or English.
– The idea of combining music and science formed during a performance at the Aboagora arts and science event in Turku. I performed there a number of years ago with the now sadly deceased Claes Andersson. The theme was to lecture about difficult memories and perform songs related to the theme. It was a powerful experience. I felt that the music emphasised the spoken content and the spoken content gave a new meaning to the songs. In this context, even somewhat banal songs about memories took on new meaning.
The next concert theme was criminality and legal processes, and in 2024 Korkman and her band went on a national tour that was very well received.
– Both the book Minnets makt (Memory Dependent) and Songs for the Criminal Record have been attempts to popularise science and to increase the understanding of legal processes and the important issues associated with them. Art and culture have an amazing power to highlight and discuss important ethical but also scientific issues. Music may not have been tested as much as a channel for scientific research findings, but in my experience the combination worked very well. Where the short lectures between songs were overviews of the research in the field, the songs often came closer to the individual experiences. But in all honesty, there were probably a couple of songs that were included mostly because they are so good!

Julia Korkman also works as a specialised planner at the European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI), which is one of the UN institutes working on criminal justice policy issues. She is the chair of the European Association of Psychology and Law (EAPL) and is also active in other international expert networks. She is frequently called upon as an expert both by the media and in connection with trials.
– Overall, it is increasingly important that we can communicate what science says in an easy-to-understand way that also reaches people who are not actively seeking out scientific information. Science journalism and popular science books and podcasts are incredibly important here, but I also see that art has enormous potential that could be utilised even more, Korkman emphasises.