Doctoral Defense in Food Science – Clara Maria Vasquez-Mejia

On Tuesday, 16 December 2025, Clara Maria Vasquez-Mejia will defend her doctoral thesis in food science at the Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Iceland. The thesis is titled: Environmental impacts of Atlantic salmon aquaculture in Iceland, with focus on water scarcity footprint.
(Umhverfisáhrif eldis á Atlantshafslaxi á Íslandi, með áherslu á vatnsskortsfótspor.)

The opponents are Dr. Alexis Laurent, professor at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), and Dr. Giacomo Falcone, associate professor at the Universita Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria.

Supervisors were Ólafur Ögmundarson and María Guðjónsdóttir. In addition, the doctoral committee included Alessandro Manzardo, associate professor, and Hildur Inga Sveinsdóttir, assistant professor.

Ingibjörg Gunnarsdóttir, professor and vice-head of the Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, will chair the ceremony, which will take place in the Ceremonial Hall of the University of Iceland and begins at 13:00.

Abstract
Aquaculture plays an increasingly important role in global food security. Salmon farming, in particular, is expanding rapidly in Iceland thanks to the country’s access to clean water and renewable energy. This doctoral research applied Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of Atlantic salmon farming in Iceland, focusing on water scarcity and carbon footprints throughout the production chain.
The research comprised three parts: a systematic literature review of aquaculture LCA studies with an emphasis on quantitative water use; a cradle-to-farm-gate environmental assessment of a land-based salmon farm in Iceland that examined the influence of the electricity mix used in the assessment and the avoided environmental burdens of utilizing aquaculture manure as a substitute for synthetic fertilizer based on its NPK content; and, finally, a national-scale analysis comparing the embedded water and carbon footprints of aquafeeds used in land-based and ocean-based salmon farming, tracing ingredients to their countries of origin.
The findings show that, although Iceland benefits from renewable energy and abundant freshwater, its aquaculture sector indirectly exerts environmental pressures abroad through feed production. These insights support more sustainable ingredient sourcing and highlight the importance of integrating water scarcity considerations into the future development of aquaculture.

About the doctoral candidate
Clara María Vásquez-Mejía was born in 1989 in Medellín, Colombia. She completed a B.Sc. degree in food science and technology from Zamorano University in Honduras in 2010 and an M.Sc. degree in food science from Purdue University in the United States in 2014. From 2011 to 2017, Clara worked at Purdue University as a research assistant on interdisciplinary projects related to food science, including food microbiology, fermentation, and nutrition. She later worked for an Icelandic innovation company in the food sector and as a senior food scientist at Quala in Colombia.

Clara began her doctoral studies at the University of Iceland in 2021. Alongside her studies, she has participated in student supervision, teaching, and grant writing. Her parents are Gustavo Vásquez and María Eugenia Mejía. She is married to Alejandro Salazar, and together they have Amelia (6 years old) and twins Gabriel and Benjamín (2 years old).