University of Iceland

Essential to approach teaching with humility and courage

23/11/2020 - 09:48

Collaboration, Narrative, and Inquiry That Honor the Complexity of Teacher Education is a new book by Karen Rut Gísladóttir, associate professor at the University of Iceland's School of Education, and the American scholars Amy Johnson Lachuk, and Tricia DeGraff.

"The aim of the book is draw on the framework we have been using in our work through out the years. The results shed light on the issues we have been tackling in our work to become the university lecturers or teacher educators we wish to be. Based on that we underline what we find important to nurture in all work with teachers and student teachers," says Karen Rut Gísladóttir, one of the authors.

Better data to serve as the foundation of correct economic measures during the pandemic

"Once the COVID-19 epidemic broke out many realised that traditional statistics could not ensure timely and informed decision making. All around the world there is a cry for better reasoning to support the disease prevention and economic measures taken, and their interactions. Such reasoning calls for good and timely data. We thought it thus important to study the data access in Iceland, compare it to other countries and at the same time compare the status of the reactive measures and consequences of COVID-19." This says Þórhildur Jetzek, assistant professor at the University of Iceland Faculty of Economics, on a study that she has been working on for the past few months with the economy student Erla Björk Sigurðardóttir. The study is in relation to the extensive impact the corona virus pandemic has had on the world economy.

Elísabet chosen as Outstanding Young Icelander of 2020

15/12/2020 - 14:08

Elísabet Brynjarsdóttir, former President of the University of Iceland Student Council and the Aurora Student Council, was recently selected as Outstanding Young Icelander of 2020 for her contributions in the area of philanthropy and volunteering.

The award is presented by JCI Iceland, who recognise people as part of an international programme that JCI organises all over the world to honour success and motivate other young people to succeed.
This was the nineteenth time the award has been presented in Iceland. As previously, the evaluation committee nominated ten people, all of whom were recognised as an Outstanding Young Icelanders for their contributions to Icelandic society. The group includes several current and former University of Iceland students.

Doctoral defence in Biology - Jónas Páll Jónasson

20. January 2021 - 14:00 to 16:00

Aðalbygging

The Aula

Live stream: https://livestream.com/hi/doktorsvornjonasjonasson

Ph.D. student: Jónas Páll Jónasson

Dissertation title: Population dynamics of fish juveniles and invertebrates in Icelandic waters

Opponents:
Dr. Richard David Marriott Nash, Principal scientist, Marine Fisheries Cefas, Lowestoft, UK
Dr. Guðbjörg Ásta Ólafsdóttir, Director of the Research Centre West Fjords, University of Iceland

Advisor: Dr. Guðrún Marteinsdóttir, Professor at the Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Iceland

Doctoral committee:
Dr. Bruce J. McAdam, Lecturer at the Institute of Aquaculture, The Univeristy of Sterling, UK
Dr. Sigurður Snorrason, Professor at the Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Iceland

Daytime sleepiness can be life-threatening

Good sleep is immensely important as it is considered one of the main pillars of good health and well-being, along with good nutrition and physical activity.

People who have not slept enough frequently experience daytime sleepiness,which can have multiple effects on their health, as well as reducing quality of life and productivity. Lack of sleep can, furthermore, diminish focus and reflexes and even cause distortion of the senses. Not enough sleep can in some instances affect peoples temper. There is thus much to gain by analysing the problems causing daytime sleepiness and finding ways to improve sleep and minimising the perils to peoples' health.

Online teaching with the possibility of some on-campus learning

12/08/2020 - 14:30

Jón Atli Benediktsson, Rector of the University of Iceland, sent the following announcement to students and staff today:

"Dear students and colleagues,

Teaching for the new semester is about to begin, along with other operations across all UI schools. It is a challenge to organise work at the University in these uncertain times when the situation can change at short notice.

Our goal is to plan the semester so that operations continue uninterrupted despite the potential for sudden changes and so that everything is as close to normal as possible. This means that teaching at the University of Iceland for the 2020 autumn semester will be planned as online teaching – and may become fully online at short notice if the situation changes. At the same time, we will seek to use classrooms for on-campus learning as far as circumstances allow.

Eight postdoctoral fellowships to study the ocean, climate, culture and society

14/09/2020 - 11:56

The HM Queen Margrethe II's and Vigdís Finnbogadóttir's Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Ocean, Climate and Society (ROCS) is now accepting applications for eight postdoctoral fellowships in the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences. The postdoctoral researchers will conduct their research both in Denmark at the University of Copenhagen and in Iceland at the University of Iceland.

There are three two-year postdoctoral fellowships in the humanities and social sciences, to investigate the impact of the ocean and climate change on Icelandic society and culture.

There are, furthermore, five two-year postdoctoral fellowships in the natural sciences. They will investigate the relationship between climate and ecosystems over time, in the ocean and on land, by mapping the links between climate and the marine biosphere during the Anthropocene and researching climate-related changes on land and at sea.

Interest predicts direction in life better than personality

Sif Einarsdóttir, professor of career counselling and guidance at the University of Iceland

Interest has more impact on our life goals than personality according to a new study involving a researcher from the University of Iceland. The results were recently published by the Journal of Research in Personality and covered by Forbes, the widely-read business magazine, last month.

"Student and career counsellors have the role to assist people in finding a job that suits them and is fulfilling. The rationale for the research was to get a step closer to understanding the factors that impact career development for young people; our focus in this study was was thus on relationship of interest and personality to people's life goals," says Sif Einarsdóttir, professor of career counselling and guidance at the University of Iceland, who was one of the researchers.

Midway evaluation in Mechanical Engineering - Sahar Safarianbana

6. October 2020 - 10:00 to 11:00

VR-II

Room 157

Live stream

Title: Modeling of small scale municipal solid-waste gasification system for energy production

Doctoral candidate: Sahar Safarianbana

Doctoral committee:
Rúnar Unnþórsson, Professor at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Mechancial Engineering and Computer Science, University of Iceland
Christiaan Petrus Richter, Professor at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Mechancial Engineering and Computer Science, University of Iceland
Jukka Taneli Heinonen, Professor at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iceland

Abstract: