Astrid Aarrestad

Astrid Aarestad is a Norrwegian atmospheric physicist. Born in Oslo, Norway, she was an raised in the foster system and was adopted at age 5 by a family from Svolvær, where she grew up.

She described her childhood as "the not unique but rare experience of growing up the only black child anyone around me has ever seen, in a family of pale redhead fishermen". Despite this description, only her grandfathers were fishermen; her parents both worked in the oil industry as engineers.

She has studied at the university of Helsinki to obtain her bachelors degree in Physics, Masters degree in Atmospheric Physics, and PhD in Atmospheric Physics.

She teaches Physics at the University of Helsinki. She lives on the outskirts of Helsinki with her wife.

She used to play rugby semi-professionally, and also enjoys basketball.