Recently, students taking the “Migration and Population Development” course at UW got the chance to have a meeting with Jón Páll, the mayor of Bolungarvík. Bolungarvík is a coastal town, 15 minutes away from Ísafjörður. They were shown around the municipality building and got to peek into the office of the Natural Science Institute of the Westfjords, Blámi, and the Research Centre of the University of Iceland housed in the same building. After the tour, they had an interesting talk in the mayor's office about the town’s population development and investments, and got an informative presentation. Jón Páll introduced them to a project called “Bolungarvík 1000+” which aimed to increase the population of Bolungarvík from 950 inhabitants to over 1000. It was a response to pressure that was put on small communities with under 1000 inhabitants to merge. Jón Páll said that Bolungarvík is a very independent town, and they didn’t consider the option to merge with another municipality and decided instead to increase the population to over 1000 people. They were successful and on April 13th 2023 the population reached 1000 inhabitants. He said they did this by investing and putting effort into three big pillars.

Leah Shamlian is an UW alum who recently won the Tom McKnight & Joan Clemons Paper Award for her master’s thesis. The award was presented at the annual Association for Pacific Coast Geographers Conference, and it is given to outstanding papers. The committee, which is made up of 5 to 7 faculty from a variety of universities and colleges, looks for an overall knowledge of the topic presented, the promise shown when the student presents, and their response to questions. The award was created by Tom McKnight and Joan Clomens.

Emma Dexter, a UW student in the Coastal Communities and Regional Development master’s program at UW, is currently conducting a nationwide survey in Iceland as a part of her master’s project. The survey measures place attachment, climate change awareness, and risk perception for people living in Iceland. The findings will help inform sustainable development strategies on a local and national scale and suggest how individuals’ perceptions might be better integrated into these plans.

UW has a visitor this week from a researcher conducting field work in Ísafjörður for his master’s thesis. Matei Filip Popescu is a 26-year-old master’s student in the Environment and Natural Resources program at the University of Iceland. He has been staying at UW, where he uses the remote working office to conduct interviews with locals. His thesis adviser is Dr. David Cook, who is an instructor at UW and adjunct lecturer at the University of Iceland. It is through his connection to UW that Matei came here to us. His master’s thesis is on the social acceptance of green ammonia for maritime uses in Ísafjörður. He is conducting interviews with local institutions, businesses, and members of the community to understand and consider a broad spectrum of opinions, worries, or excitements about the idea of developing a green ammonia hub in Ísafjörður for maritime use.