Minna Koivikko, PhD, is a Senior Specialist in the maritime archaeology team at the Finnish Heritage Agency. She works extensively with the underwater cultural heritage of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Suomenlinna (Sveaborg) and its surrounding waters, focusing on the remains of the 18th- and 19th-century wooden warships of the Swedish and Russian navies.
Her research builds on her doctoral dissertation Recycling Ships (University of Helsinki, 2017, with honours), which examined the reuse and transformation of vessels in the Baltic Sea. She continues this line of inquiry through international collaborations such as The Lost Navy: Sweden’s “Blue” Heritage c.1450–1850, leading the Finnish sub-project on Suomenlinna’s wrecks (2021-2026).
Koivikko is a certified Advanced European Scientific Diver (AESD) and currently practises rebreather diving. She regularly leads research and training dives, combining field archaeology with advanced recording methods such as photogrammetry and 3D modelling.
Her main interests include human behaviour in maritime contexts, the cultural biographies of ships, recycling and sustainability, and the challenges posed by climate change to underwater cultural heritage. She is also dedicated to improving methods for identifying and interpreting wooden wrecks and to fostering cross-disciplinary and international collaboration in maritime archaeology.