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about FRANK
What are we supposed to do with this thing called life we’ve been thrown into?
Frank Martela, PhD, is a philosopher and researcher of psychology specialized in what makes for a good life and how organizations and institutions can support better living. His is a quest to understand what to do, value, and aim for in this unfolding experience called human life.
He aims to investigate the fundamentals of happiness, meaningfulness, human basic needs, and good life to deliver insights that can help each of us to live a slightly better and more self-chosen life.
Frank is an Assistant Professor at Aalto University, Finland, where he teaches courses on Designing Adaptive and Creative Organizations and The Art of Living. He is a cross-disciplinary researcher with PhDs in both philosophy (University of Helsinki) and organizational research (Aalto University).
Frank is also a key expert on happiness of nations and why Finland and other Nordic countries are so happy, having written about the topic for both Scientific American Observer and for the World Happiness Report 2020, and – since Finland was ranked the happiest country in the world in 2018, 2019, and 2020 – been interviewed by journalists from countries ranging from US, Germany and France to Greece, Spain and Brazil, including, e.g. New York Times, CNN, and Vice News.
Human psychological needs and ultimate motivations is Frank’s third research interest. He has done research on prosocial motivation and why humans help other people, having been a visiting scholar at the Human Motivation Research Group of University of Rochester, and delivering a keynote speech at the 2019 Self-determination theory conference.
Frank has spoken to more than one hundred audiences worldwide, with invited lectures in universities on four continents, including Stanford University and Harvard University.
He’s been interviewed for the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, Times, Discover Magazine, Le Monde, Die Süddeutsche Zeitung, Vice News, Wired Japan, and Monocle Observer among others.
His articles have appeared in Scientific American Mind, Harvard Business Review, Philosophy Now, TED Ideas, and Salon and his work has been featured on The Telegraph, Quartz and on the BBC.
Frank was also one of the co-founders and chairman of the board of Filosofian Akatemia Oy, a company specialized in measuring engagement, motivation and meaningfulness at work, and consulting organizations on how to make worklife better. The company was sold to Heltti in 2023.
Outside of work, Frank is a husband, father to three lovely children (currently 13, 11, and 8 years old), an amateur-level soccer player, with an occasional skiing trip and some cross-country skiing in the winters. In karaoke bars, he tends to go for rap songs. He lives in Helsinki, Finland.
Despite sounding like an academic geek, Frank is quite a decent guy to hang out with and able to communicate his message with a gusto and without academic jargon.
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