University of Iceland

This course deals with processes of glacial erosion, glacial sedimentation, and glacial morphology. Lectures concern glacial systems, glacier movements, hydrology, erosion, sediment transport and deposition, glaciotectonic deformations and glacial landforms. The course ends with a 5-day field trip to present glaciers in southern Iceland and formerly glaciated areas in western Iceland, where students get to observe glacial processes and products. Participation in fieldtrip is required for getting course credits.

This course provides an overview of general and specific concepts concerning popular perceptions of Viking Age and medieval Nordic history and culture from a multidisciplinary perspective. By reviewing of a wide variety of primary sources, medieval and modern - including sagas, chronicles, myths, folklore, video games, TV, and film - the course provides students with a basic knowledge of both practical aspects and mental attitudes related to the spread of Nordic cultural ideals to a worldwide audience: in particular, the medieval origins of ideas of Nordic culture and how they were transplanted into mainstream popular entertainment. Students explore misconceptions and stereotypes about Viking Age lifestyle and culture, including daily life, food, identity, Romanticism, Nationalism, and ethnic and spatial borders, with particular focus on medieval Iceland and Scandinavia.

In this course the principles of geochemistry are introduced, including the distribution of the elements on Earth, various phase diagrams, thermodynamics and water solutions. Also covered is nuclear fusion, the origin of the solar system, distribution of trace elements, stable and radiogenic isotopes, and how these are used in geoscience research.

Glaciers in the world are responding fast to climate change, they are therefore important indicators for assessing changes, but have also impact on the climate system through for example albedo feedback and sea level rise. In this course glaciers are studied, their distribution in the world, how glacier ice is formed from snow, how they move and respond to climate change. Focus is on Icelandic glaciers, their energy and mass balance, interaction of geothermal activity and glaciers in Iceland and reoccurring floods, jökulhlaups, from the main ice cap. During the course students learn terminology and concepts that equip them to understand and contribute to discussions of climate change and the role of glaciers in the climate system.  Background in high school physics and math is useful, as numerical  problems concerning temperature, energy budget, mass balance and flow of glaciers are solved in groups. Glacier measurement techniques are introduced, and at the end of the course ablation stakes are installed in Sólheimajökull on the south coast of Iceland in a two-day field excursion. Participation in the field trip is mandatory.

Main topics include the design of parallel computers and parallel programming models; shared memory architecture; message passing and distributed memory architecture; parallel programming of computer clusters using MPI and multicore programming using OpenMP; parallel algorithms for sorting, searching, linear algebra, and various graph problems.

Students learn about the weather and climate, geology, vegetation, and animal life. (wild and domestic). They attend lectures about the geology of Iceland and go on fieldtrips to see volcanoes, hotsprings, and lava, and study the geography of the country. They go birdwatching, to the seashore and to a woody hill. Field trips (1-6 hours) are an important part of the course. Environmental problems and nature conservation in Iceland are discussed.

The course introduces perturbative quantum field theory and some of its applications in modern physics. Main topics include relativistic quantum mechanics, bosonic and fermionic fields, interactions in perturbation theory, Feynman diagram methods, scattering processes and particle decay, and elementary processes in quantum electrodynamics (QED).

This course provides an introduction to Einstein's relativity theory: Special relativity, four-vectors and tensors. General relativity, spacetime curvature, the equivalence principle, Einstein's equations, experimental tests within the solar system, gravitational waves, black holes, and cosmology.

This course introduces students to cartographic theory and mapmaking via using digital technology. Topics include basic characteristics of maps; the function of general reference maps, charts, and thematic maps; major map projections;  generalization principles; qualitative and quantitative attributes at point, line, and area; general design principles; color and typography; map compilation; reproduction and copyright issues; understanding of types, sources, and meanings of spatial and other geographic data and their relevance in geographical research and practice.

The course introduces foreign students to Icelandic folk culture past and present: from the folk beliefs implied by the Icelandic sagas to the famous collection of folk tales concerning "hidden people", elves, magicians, seal-folk, ghosts, and more which was published by Jón Árnason in 1862-64; the ballads and music enjoyed by the people in the countryside; and the beliefs, behavior, and lifestyles encountered by the somewhat dumbfounded and awe-inspired early foreign travelers to Iceland during the last century.