Thesis defence season: fall 2026
27.08.2026
It’s thesis defense season once again at the University Centre of the Westfjords! The first defense will take place on Tuesday, September 1st, marking the beginning of several exciting weeks ahead.
During this defense season, 15 students will present and defend their master’s theses, covering a wide range of interesting and thought-provoking topics. We wish all of our students the very best of luck with their defenses and look forward to celebrating this important milestone with them.
All thesis defenses are open to the public, and everyone is warmly invited to attend. It is also possible to join the defenses online via Zoom. Links to each defense can be found in the table below.
| Date | Time (GMT) | Student | Program | Thesis title | Zoom link |
| 1. Sept. | 10:00 | Cassie O'Flaherty | CMM | Nutrient Dynamics and Delivery in the Hvítá River in Borgarfjörður, Iceland: Impacts of Glacial Melt and Agricultural Runoff | https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/62389143848 |
| 1. Sept. | 13:00 | Sonya Krasotina | CMM | “We live a very cinematic life here” Using Participatory Video to Explore the Experiences of International Students and Graduates in Ísafjörður, Iceland: An Exploratory Case Study |
https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/67870909522 |
| 3. Sept. | 14:00 | Jon Gruca | CMM | Eutrophication in Southeast Ireland: An assessment of water quality in the Waterford Estuary | https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/65236901824 |
| 9. Sept. | 08:30 | Aija Ayers | CMM | Community eyes in the sky: drone monitoring of estuary crabs | https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/65318851470 |
| 9. Sept. | 14:00 | Emily Lafond | CMM | Understanding how restoration design steers long-term eco-geomorphic evolution of salt marshes: A numerical modelling case study in the St-Lawrence Estuary, Quebec, Canada | https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/64404052227 |
| 10. Sept. | 09:00 | Asit Rahman | CMM | Magnetic Disturbances to Cetaceans in Ísafjarðardjúp, Iceland | https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/63315794211 |
| 10. Sept. | 13:00 | Lisa McMinn | CMM | Exploring Community Perceptions of Offshore Wind Development in Nova Scotia | https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/65042469453 |
| 14. Sept. | 11:30 | Paula Cano | CMM | Integrating Coastal Climate Risk Assessments into Digital Twin Frameworks: A Case Study of the Cabrera Marine Protected Area | https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/68841533902 |
| 15. Sept. | 10:00 | Jessica Antonisse | CMM | How Arctic Marine Protected Areas reflect the Doughnut Economy framework: Dos and Doughnuts in the Arctic | https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/68173781879 |
| 15. Sept. | 13:00 | Caroline Kilmartin | CMM | The Fair and Equitable Distribution of Commercialised Antifreeze Proteins from the Arctic High Seas: A Social Justice Analysis of the BBNJ Agreement | https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/65797604576 |
| 16. Sept. | 08:30 | Chloe Bynon | CMM | Can climate change the menu? Space-for-time comparison of prey availability and dietary composition of an estuarine fish along a rainfall gradient | https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/63589852375 |
| 16. Sept. | 13:00 | Sydney Bateman | CMM | Harbour Ecology and Bioindicator Potential of the Atlantic Rock Crab (Cancer irroratus) in the Westfjords, Iceland: Distribution, Shell Disease, and Contamination | https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/69303425853 |
| 16. Sept. | 15:30 | Alex Jones | CRD | Rural Change and Post-Capitalist Possibilities: A Case Study of St Mabyn, Cornwall | https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/66933545675 |
| 17. Sept. | 13:00 | Nicole Drewitz | CMM | Is Nordic cloudberry moving with climate change?A transmedia guide to species distribution modelling with MaxEnt | https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/64506111668 |
| 21. Sept. | 13:00 | Nathan Parisse | CMM | Genetic structure of the seabird tick Ixodes uriae in Atlantic puffin colonies around Iceland | https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/67008352228 |