Dr. Markku Lehtonen is an interdisciplinary social scientist at the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. He holds a PhD in environmental economics (Université de Versailles, 2005) and an MSc in environmental studies (University of Helsinki 1994).

Markku's research is related to sustainable development and environmental governance, including areas such as public controversies over nuclear energy and radioactive management, megaproject governance and evaluation, the role of trust, mistrust, distrust and expertise in policymaking, sustainability at educational institutions, citizen participation, the role of international organisations in environmental and energy policies, and the social dimension of sustainable development. His current main research project, PROMISES, analyses techno-scientific promises in the area of nuclear energy, with a focus on the small modular reactors (SMRs) in Canada, Finland, France, Sweden, and the UK.

As part of his TENUMECA project, Markku worked from May to September 2019 at the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, examining the ways in which the NEA addresses problems associated with nuclear-sector megaprojects. He is also researcher at IGOP (Institute of Goverment and Public Policy) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, adjunct professor at the University of Jyväskylä, associate researcher at the Groupe de Sociologie Pragmatique et Réflexive (GSPR), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, and Associate Faculty at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex. He worked as a Research Fellow at the Sussex Energy Group at SPRU in 2005-2015, at the Institute for Research and Innovation in Society – IFRIS, Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, in 2012-2014, and at the ESSEC Business School in Cergy-Pontoise, France, in 2015-2018.