Hamed Ahmadinia
Ph.D in Information Studies
hamed.ahmadinia@utu.fi |
science communication; information behaviour; health information; media framing; misinformation; retracted science; digital literacy; survey research; mixed methods; multilevel modelling; Python; NVivo; SPSS; data analysis; public understanding of science; academic publishing; immigrant health; trust in information
Working on science communication and retraction studies in two UTU-based projects on unreliable scientific information, led by Kim Holmberg.
Hamed Ahmadinia (Ph.D.) is a social science researcher with an academic background in information studies, information and knowledge management, and business and economics. He earned his Ph.D. from Åbo Akademi University in 2024, with a dissertation focused on immigrant health information behaviour in Nordic welfare contexts. He also holds master’s degrees in Information & Knowledge Management and Business Administration – Finance.
Ahmadinia has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and conference papers in journals such as Library & Information Science Research, Journal of Documentation, and International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care. He serves as a reviewer for several international journals, including Scientific Reports, BMC Public Health, and Information Research, and has worked as an academic editor for PLOS ONE and SAGE Open.
He has received over €134,000 in competitive research funding between 2020 and 2025 from the Finnish Cultural Foundation (Post Doc & Doctoral), KAKS (The Municipal Sector’s Research Foundation), Otto A. Malm Foundation, and Karl-Erik Henriksson Fund. This funding has supported both doctoral and postdoctoral research activities. His research interests include health and digital information behaviour, science communication, media framing, and the societal effects of misinformation.
He currently works as a Senior Researcher at the University of Turku, contributing to national research projects on unreliable scientific information and the public impact of retracted studies. More Information: www.ahmadinia.fi
His research focuses on science communication, media framing, and the societal impact of unreliable or retracted scientific information. At the University of Turku (2024–2027), he works on two projects led by Dr. Kim Holmberg: “Unreliable science: Unravelling the impact of mainstream media misrepresentation” (2025–2026) and “Societal impact of unreliable scientific information: the influence of retracted scientific articles on public perceptions, attitudes, and evidence-informed decision-making” (2024–2028). These projects examine how flawed science is represented in the media and its effects on public trust, perception, and policy relevance.
From 2019 to 2024, He was a doctoral candidate at Åbo Akademi University, where his dissertation focused on immigrant health information seeking and the cultural, social, and informational factors influencing well-being in Nordic welfare states. His work combined qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore informational behaviour in health contexts.
In 2023–2024, as a researcher at the Migration Institute of Finland, He contributed to the Mobile Futures project. He was responsible for analysing longitudinal ESS data (2002–2023) to investigate how generalised trust and digital information encounters shape European managers’ attitudes towards immigrants using multilevel and fixed-effects modelling.
His broader research interests include retraction awareness, digital literacy, health information behaviour, misinformation, and public engagement with science.
He currently does not hold teaching responsibilities at the University of Turku. However, he has extensive prior teaching experience in Finland and abroad. In spring 2025, he taught a 3 ECTS course titled Data Analytics & Statistics in Python at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. The course focused on statistical modelling, data analysis, and visualisation using Python (Pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib, and Seaborn) and included hands-on coding assignments and the supervision of students mini-projects.
At Åbo Akademi University, he lectured in the Governance of Digitalisation master’s program between 2022 and 2024. I delivered two modules:
- Information Behaviour I (Autumn 2022): Applications of literacies (1 ECTS)
- Information Behaviour II (Spring 2022, 2023, 2024): Health information behaviour and theoretical frameworks (1 ECTS each year)
His tasks included preparing and recording lectures, supervising learning diaries and group discussions, and evaluating assignments.
From 2011 to 2014, he worked as a lecturer at Azad University (Shahre Rey and North Tehran branches), teaching multiple bachelor’s and associate-level courses in finance, accounting, and business. Courses included:
- Finance 1 (3 ECTS)
- Finance 2 (3 ECTS)
- Investing in Stocks (2 ECTS)
- Financial Project (3 ECTS)
- Tax Accounting (multiple instances, 2 ECTS each)
- Application of Computer in Accounting – 2 (2 ECTS)
Responsibilities included syllabus development, delivery of lectures, supervision of projects, and final exams.