The International Symposium of GIS and Computer Cartography for Coastal Zone Management will be held in Ísafjörður 27-29 September 2018. It is still possible to register for the conference!

Soon our Icelandic Language courses will come to an end as the final days of the Intermediate course are upon us. The courses began on July 31 with the three-week Beginners A1-A2 course, followed by a one week Crash Course A1 and finally the ongoing Intermediate course. This year we have had over 60 students in the courses, including a Crash Course taught in May.

The University Centre of the Westfjords is in the process of switching email services from Snerpa to G Suite and therefore the Snerpa webmail is now closed.

Even though UW's weekly Lunch Lectures are on summer holidays, some research students from SeaTech Toulon are at work together with their supervisor, Björn Erlingsson. They are modelling the ocean currents in Skutulsfjörður, the fjord where the town of Ísafjörður is located on a sandreef in the middle of the fjord, and will present their findings on Friday, 27.02.2018, at 12:10, the normal time of Vísindaport Lunch Lectures.

Even though the University Center of the Westfjords (UW) is still a relatively young institution, some of its activities have already put down long roots. For the first time now, alumni from the School for International Training (SIT) have met in Ísafjörður for a ten years reunion to reminisce in good memories.

Today we welcomed a group of 17 very interested US - High School students and their leaders Patrick Hagarty and Steph Yin traveling with the New York Times. The group is visiting the Westfjords to learn about renewable energy and the impacts of climate change in remote arctic communities.

On March 8th the University Centre received the official confirmation that the Ministry of Culture and Education would fund the new master's program in Coastal Communities and Regional Development. When the green light was given by the Ministry in March, the time frame was too short to attract students to a new program in the Westfjords, even though UW took advantage of the latest possible deadline, June 5th. 

Brianna Bambic, soon to graduate from the Coastal and Marine Management master’s program at the University Center of the Westfjords, was recently awarded the National Geographic Early Career Grant. Her initial master’s thesis involved the creation of a new immersive virtual experience that allowed participants to see the changing Belizean reef from the last 40 years.

On Tuesday a group of researchers in the Westfjords joined together and opened a photo exhibition in Edinborgarhúsið Culture House in Ísafjörður. The photos will be hosted at the local restaurant Hamraborg and will then be featured in other communities around the Westfjords.

UW director Peter Weiss recently returned from a seminar funded through the Nordic Council of Ministers on Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change and Globalisation in Disko Bay, West Greenland. The seminar comes at a good time; UW recently launched a new master's programme in Coastal Communities and Regional Development and the topics of the seminar in Greenland were closely aligned with the scope of the new masters programme.