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Doctoral defence in Physics - Jan David Burger

20. August 2021 - 10:00 to 12:00

Aðalbygging

The Aula

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

Ph.D. student: Jan David Burger

Dissertation title: Stellar orbits in adiabatically and impulsively evolving dark matter dominated potentials

Opponents: 
Dr. Justin Read, Professor at the University of Surrey, UK
Dr. Nicola Amorisco, Assistant Professor at the University of Durham, UK

Advisor: Dr. Jesús Zavala Franco, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Physical Sciences, University of Iceland

Doctoral committee: 
Dr. Gunnlaugur Björnsson, Research Scientist at the Science Institute, University of Iceland
Dr. Miguel Ángel Sanchez-Conde, Talento Fellow at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain

Universities are the cradle of new ideas

10/09/2021 - 12:26

Jón Atli Benediktsson, Rector of the University of Iceland, sent the following message to University staff and students today (10 September 2021):

"Dear students and colleagues, 

The University of Iceland is an extremely fertile breeding ground for ideas, ideas that can often be exploited to create new opportunities in industry and society. For example, the touch screen technology in mobile phones, which most of us use on a daily basis, has its origins in basic university research. Companies then embraced this technology, further developing it and finding practical applications. Various solutions to treat COVID-19 were first created within academia, before companies' R&D divisions developed them into drugs. In order for us to succeed, industry and academia need to work as a team.

Significant glacial retreat since 1890

Since around 1890, Icelandic glaciers have been shrinking by around 4 billion tons (Gt) per year, with a total loss in this period of between 410 and 670 Gt. At the same time, glaciers have lost almost 16% of their volume. Around half of this was lost between autumn 1994 and autumn 2019, with the total loss for this period between 220 and 260 Gt – close to 10 Gt per year on average.

Doctoral defense - Nína M. Saviolidis

25. June 2021 - 14:00 to 16:00

Aðalbygging

PhD candidate: Nína María Saviolidis

Nína M. Saviolidis will defend her thesis Advancing sustainability in economic sectors on Friday, June 25th at 14:00. The defence will take place at the Main Hall and is open to all. It will also be streamed online due to the ongoing pandemic; Doktorsvörn Nína María Saviolidis on Livestream

Title: Advancing sustainability in economic sectors

Opponents: Dr. Jari Lyytimäki, Adjunct professor, University of Helsinki; senior researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute and Dr. Gerald G. Singh, Professor Department of Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.

First now permission to choose freedom over having children

"The birth rate in Iceland is plummeting," says Sunna Símonardóttir, PhD in sociology and post-doc at the University of Iceland. She is currently looking for possible explanation to the decline in birth rates in Iceland in her research "Fertility intentions and behaviour in Iceland."  

Each woman has to have 2.1 children on average to maintain the population. However, the current average is only 1.7 children. "When the rate goes down it means that there are too few children being born to sustain our future society - pay taxes and look after us when we grow old. It is a matter of concern in the Western World that people are not having children," says Sunna. 

Are there ants under Reykjavík?

"Most Icelanders probably think that there are no ants in Iceland, just as I did when I first arrived here, but our research has revealed five different species that have settled here. Four thrive in houses due to the heat and the humidity, but one species lives outside in gardens," says Marco Mancini, master student in biology at the University of Iceland and a member of the antsquad at the University's Institute of Biology. The squad maps the distribution of ants in Iceland, and examines whether there are giant ant colonies in the city's sewage system.

The project is called Ants in Iceland (Maurar á Íslandi) and is linked to Marco's master project. The project is conduced under the supervision of Arnar Pálsson, professor of bioinformatics and Mariana Lucia Tamayo, associate professor in Environment and Natural Resources. Andreas Guðmundsson, BS student in biology is also involved in the project.

Life returns to the University campus

05/03/2021 - 11:40

Jón Atli Benediktsson, Rector of the University of Iceland, sent the following message to University staff and students today (5 March 2021):

"Dear students and colleagues.

It is difficult to express how wonderful it is to see the University campus filled with life again. Students have returned to University buildings and a growing number of courses are now taught on campus. Despite the advantages of distance learning, we must never forget that a university is a community and a source of innovation in every sense of the word. It is a place where people from different backgrounds come together to enjoy each other's company or exchange views, generating ideas that often lead to exploitation of new knowledge that benefits entire communities.

Fighting multiresistant bacteria

10/03/2021 - 13:51

Most people try to avoid pathogens as much as possible, since they generally cause health problems and even serious epidemics. History shows us this very plainly. The obvious example to demonstrate how serious infectious diseases can be is the COVID-19 pandemic currently raging. 

Karl Gústaf Kristinsson, professor at the University of Iceland Faculty of Medicine, is a little different from most other people when it comes to pathogens. He is in fact fascinated by some of them, not least pneumococcus and streptococcus as well as E. coli. Karl Gústaf heads the Department of Clinical Microbiology at Landspítali University Hospital and is therefore primarily interested in resolving the health problems caused by pathogens, both bacteria and viruses.  

Doctoral lecture in Environmental studies - Jani Laine

25. March 2021 - 13:30 to 14:30

The event on Teams

Ph.D. student: Jani Laine

Dissertation title: The significance of municipal energy related actions when aiming at carbon neutral cities

Opponents were: 
Dr. Laura Saikku, Docent at the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Finland
Dr. André Bohne, Professor at NTNU, Norway

Advisor: Dr. Jukka Heinonen, Professor at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iceland

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