University of Iceland

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.

The course focuses on anthropologists' discussion of art. Different definitions of the concept are considered and, in that context, the relation of art to aesthetics and ethics. Answers are sought to the question of whether all work that appears artistic to westernized perception is indeed so to those who produce this work. Authorship, authenticity, and problems arising from the interaction between different cultural traditions are considered. In order to shed light on these issues various ethnographic studies throughout the world are studied.

This course covers heat budget of the Earth, heat transport to the Earth´s surface, geothermal systems and their structure, renewability of geothermal systems, methodology in geothermal development, estimation of resource size, fluid origin and chemistry, water-rock interaction, environmental impact of utilization, and well testing and well data integration.  

The basic principles of volcanology are covered in this course including the journey of magma from source to surface plus the general processes that control eruptions and dispersal of erupted products. It also covers the principles of eruption monitoring as well as volcano-climate.