{"id":32,"date":"2022-01-24T15:13:09","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T15:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/hrandhawa\/?page_id=32"},"modified":"2026-09-02T15:12:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T15:12:34","slug":"people","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/hrandhawa\/people\/","title":{"rendered":"People"},"content":{"rendered":"

Einar P\u00e9tur J\u00f3nsson (PhD student) - Start: October 2023
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Being brought up in Iceland and spending much time by and in the sea now seems like an obvious path towards studying marine biology. My undergrad studies in marine biology were carried out in Chile, at the Pontific Catholic University of Chile, where I got to know a rich and fascinating ecosystem governed by strong oceanographic processes.<\/p>\n

Upon coming home I started working for the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (MFRI) doing shape analysis of cod otoliths, which then led me to a M.Sc. study on the cod ecotypes, their otolith shape variation and the ecological processes behind it.<\/p>\n

I\u2018ve recently started my Ph.D. where I\u2018m employing an experimental strategy to look into multiple stressor effects on marine organisms. This is part of the MFRI\u2018s build-up of facilities and knowledge to do these kind of experiments where we study the effects of more than one stressor at a time, such as temperature and pH, for example.<\/p>\n

Francesco Golin (PhD student) - Start: June 2024
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Living nearby the mountains of northern Italy, as a kid the summertime has always been a special time for me, as it meant: camping by the sea, exploring rockpools and endless hours of snorkeling and diving! From then on, I cultivated my love for marine science, graduating from the IMBRSea programme and officially becoming a marine biologist. My passion is researching ecology of communities; because of, this I have participated to a research cruise in the North Sea, and I have been working on copepod diet, microalgae cultivation, shrimp and cod parasites. The two last studies were linked with fisheries science, which is my other main interest.<\/p>\n

I am now a PhD student at H\u00e1sk\u00f3li \u00cdslands and working at Hafranns\u00f3knastofnun, the Marine Institute of Iceland, under the supervision of Haseeb Randhawa, Ingibj\u00f6rg J\u00f3nsd\u00f3ttir, and Julian Burgos. The topic of my PhD is marine fish community dynamics in Icelandic waters, and I am investigating which factors drive the distribution of fish species, how their communities will develop with current climate change and fishing pressure, and which measures can be applied to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services. Through this experience I plan on gaining valuable knowledge on statistics, modelling, and marine management, to become an all-round marine community ecologist.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Ferreira (PhD student) - Start: September 2024
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I\u2019d say marine science has always been an integral part of my life. Having lived my entire life in one of Portugal\u2019s coastal towns (Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto), I was acquainted with this field at an early age through my visits to the beach during summer and my contact with the subject at school. Thanks to these experiences, I developed a genuine passion for marine science, which led me to pursue a professional career in it. I completed my BSc in Biology at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto and later my MSc in Marine Sciences \u2013 Marine Resources at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Porto. During the latter, I researched myxosporean biodiversity in an estuarine environment at different stages of their life cycle employing traditional and eDNA-based detection and diversity assessment techniques.<\/p>\n

Currently, I\u2019m starting my PhD at the School of Engineering and Natural Sciences (SENS) of the University of Iceland, with the supervision of Dr Haseeb Randhawa and Dr Bj\u00f6rn Sch\u00e4ffner. My PhD thesis will focus on surveying the status of parasitic organisms infecting skate hosts in marine ecoregions off Iceland to aid future implementation of conservation efforts to threatened host-parasite systems. Through this work, I intend on improving my knowledge regarding marine parasitology and conservation so I can become a better researcher.<\/p>\n

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Melanie Stock (PhD student) - Start: April 2025<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Despite not having grown up near the sea, I always dreamed of becoming a marine biologist studying whales and dolphins (as you do when you grew up with the Free Willy movies!). My path started with my B.Sc. studies in Biology at the University of Tuebingen in southern Germany which I continued by enrolling in the master\u2018s program of Evolution and Ecology with a major in Marine Ecology. For my master\u00b4s thesis, I was lucky enough to collaborate with the H\u00e1sk\u00f3lasetur in \u00cdsafj\u00f6r\u00f0ur in the Westfjords of Iceland. That\u00b4s when I fell in love with the nature and culture of Iceland and decided to stay. Now, I am doing my Ph.D. with the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (MFRI) and H\u00e1sk\u00f3li \u00cdslands. I am more than thrilled to not only be able to finally work in marine research but to also be able to study how to mitigate bycatch of cetaceans and seabirds in Icelandic fisheries. My very own \u201eFree Willy story\u201c.<\/p>\n

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Svand\u00eds Eva Arad\u00f3ttir (MSc student) - Start: August 2022
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My name is Svand\u00eds Eva and I was born and raised in Akureyri where my love of nature became clear early on and after I finished high school I moved to Reykjav\u00edk to study biology at the University of Iceland. Because of my love of nature and science and being from an island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean and having the initials SEA, it wasn\u2018t a surprise to anyone that I applied for a job at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (MFRI).<\/p>\n

I started at MFRI as a summer student in the summer of 2016 and when I graduated with my BSc in 2017 I came back and later on became a full time employee. I\u2018m currently the primary age analyzer of blue whiting and capelin as well as participating in a lot of surveys.\u00a0 My goal was always to go back to school and do my masters, after gaining some work experience and finding the perfect project for me I realized I was finally ready to go back to school.<\/p>\n

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Gu\u00f0r\u00fan \u00d3sk S\u00e6munsd\u00f3ttir (MSc student) - Start: August 2023
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My name is Gu\u00f0r\u00fan \u00d3sk and I come from the outskirts of Reykjav\u00edk. I\u2019ve always had a love of nature and natural sciences and as a kid I enjoyed reading science magazines and watching animal documentaries. I went on to study geophysics before realizing it was not for me and biology is where my passion lies. Now I\u2019m about to finish the last semester of my bachelor\u2019s degree in biology. For the past two years I\u2019ve worked at Mat\u00eds\u2019s sustainability and aquaculture department alongside my studies. Working at their research aquaculture facility has given me the chance to learn a lot about fish and conducting scientific experiments. I\u2019m currently writing my bachelors thesis under the supervision of Haseeb focusing on parasite communities in different ecotypes of threespine sticklebacks in Lake Thingvallavatn.<\/p>\n

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Kaylin Nickels (MSc student) - Start: August 2024
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My name is Kaylin. I was raised in Wisconsin, USA, where my father was taking me on fishing trips before I could even walk. I was fortunate to grow up with a mother and aunt who both worked in natural science fields, which made every day growing up a new science lesson.<\/div>\n
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I fell in love with the ocean and all of its mysteries when I was on vacations with my parents. I received my bachelors degree in environmental science from University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. After graduation, I pursued a career in education teaching Biology and Chemistry. My students and family encouraged me to pursue my dreams of working in Marine and Aquatic Biology. I am very excited to be working a project concerning the effect of microplastics in two commercially valuable pelagic fish species in Icelandic waters with Haseeb.<\/div>\n
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Tryggvi Gu\u00f0mundsson (MSc student) - Start: August 2024
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My name is Tryggvi Gu\u00f0mundsson and I am 36 years old first year MSc student at the Aquatic biology and Fisheries program at the University of Iceland. I was born and raised in Iceland to a family that taught me love and appreciation for nature. I entwined my love for nature into my work life by working as a guide for the last nine years, first as a glacier- and mountain guide and later I weaved my biggest passion, fly fishing and freshwater, into my guiding career. My passion and curiosity towards the aquatic environment has led me to where I am today, studying biology with a focus on the ecology of both the freshwater and the marine environment in hopes that it will propel me towards a profession in research and\/or conservation of our waters. My BSc project was done in collaboration with the Marine and Freshwater Research Institution of Iceland. During the project I inventoried the parasites found in and on haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus<\/em>) off the north and south coast of Iceland and performed a comparative analysis of the parasite communities from the two localities. My MSc project has yet to be decided.<\/p>\n

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Areeba Abrar (MSc student) - Start: August 2024<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"My name is Areeba. I completed my MSc in Marine Sciences and have always been an adventure-loving person, which led me to pursue a career in this field. My journey as a fisheries scientist has been amazing; I have had the opportunity to work with renowned NGOs like WWF and various fisheries agencies, making it a great learning experience for me.<\/p>\n

One aspect of marine science that fascinates me the most is seaweeds or macroalgae. My thesis focused on developing a biodegradable plastic wrap using seaweed to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean and the surrounding environment.<\/p>\n

Currently, I am pursuing my MSc in Aquatic Fisheries & Biology at the University of Iceland, where I have begun working on another exciting project involving macroalgae under the supervision of Karl Gunnarsson and Haseeb Randhawa. I am excited and looking forward to the opportunities that await me in the near future.<\/p>\n

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El\u00edsabet Gu\u00f0mundsd\u00f3ttir (MSc student) - Start: January 2025<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"My name is El\u00edsabet, and I am an MSc student in Marine and Freshwater Biology at the University of Iceland. During my undergraduate studies, I conducted a project based on genetic manipulations in Drosophila melanogaster<\/em>. This experience drastically increased my understanding of laboratory work. However, I realized I wanted to specialize in a subject that included more fieldwork. It wasn\u2018t until I took courses in parasitology and fish ecology that I discovered marine biology was the perfect fit for my interests, offering a unique blend of both. The first semester of my master's was taken at the University of Bergen, where my coursework centered around practical experiences at sea and several research projects on marine organisms. My master\u2018s project at the University of Iceland centers around the feeding grounds of different herring populations around Iceland.<\/p>\n

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Knut Albrecht (MSc student) - Start: January 2025<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Ever since my father took me fishing at the age of two, I am fascinated by everything that lives in and around the water. Due to this I focused my B.Sc. in Landscape Management and Nature Conservation on the limnological topic of the possible effects of carp stocking on submerged vegetation. Keen on learning more about fish and their environment, I studied Fish Biology, Fisheries and Aquaculture at the Humboldt University of Berlin until Corona hit. Following my passion, I took the chance to participate in a course for the ecology of the mesopelagic zone at the University of Iceland in May 2023. I met Haseeb and long story short, the opportunity emerged to write my thesis about the biology of some rare deep water cat shark species in the waters around Iceland. So, I joined the research cruises aboard the vessel \u00c1rni Fri\u00f0riksson in October 2023 and 2024 to get my hands on some sharks and collect data for my studies. I hope my studies and future work will add to the knowledge of these fascinating animals and their ecology. There is so much to discover in the deep!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Margot Kulberg (MSc student) - Start: January 2025<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"My name is Margot, and I am lucky to have been surrounded by nature from a very young age.\u00a0 Growing up in the mountains of Colorado (USA), I was fascinated with the bears who would visit my backyard, as well as the barking sea lions during trips to California.\u00a0 And, after visiting SeaWorld San Diego, it was clear that I wanted to study marine mammals.\u00a0 My true passion lies with orcas, specifically their communication and behavior. I earned my BS in Biology in California, beginning at Santa Barbara City College and finishing at Westmont College.\u00a0 Over the last couple of years, I have gained experience primarily working with pinnipeds, both in the field and in a rehabilitation setting.\u00a0 Most recently, I was living in Washington State and working on a whale watch boat, where I was often near orcas and other marine wildlife.\u00a0 I am excited to be here in Iceland to work on a project involving orca acoustics with Filipa and Haseeb.<\/p>\n

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Kristj\u00e1n Fri\u00f0rik Sveinbj\u00f6rnsson (MSc student) - Start: August 2025<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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My name is Kristj\u00e1n Fri\u00f0rik Sveinbj\u00f6rnsson, and I have been a fisherman for almost all my life. It all started when my dad took me fishing when I was younger and I immediately got hooked to fishing. Because of my interest in fishing and fish in general, I decided to start studying biology at the University of Iceland in 2021. I did not decide what I wanted to do until my last year where I was introduced to parasites. Then in May 2025 I finished my bachelor thesis where I looked into the difference in parasite abundance between arctic char and brown trout in Lake H\u00edtarvatn\u00a0where I found that arctic char had about 5 times higher parasite abundance than brown trout and thus found evidence of an spillback effect with the arrival of trout. Another interesting finding was the presence\u00a0of the tapeworm Eubothrium salvelini<\/i>\u00a0with molecular confirmation in brown trout which has been considered impossible to happen. Now for my masters, I am assessing the parasite fauna and looking at the difference in parasite abundance between arctic char and brown trout in four lake areas around Iceland. This will hopefully give us further evidence that an spillback effect occurred when brown trout arrived, and hopefully we will find more examples of Eubothrium salvelini<\/i>\u00a0in brown trout in different areas around Iceland.<\/p>\n

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Ella Jorgensen (MSc student) - Start: August 2025<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"My name is Ella and I\u2019m from Long Beach, California where I work as an ocean lifeguard. I have spent my summers working at the beach since I was very young, and this is where I developed an interest in marine biology. I completed my B.S. in Biological Sciences at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. During my undergrad, I spent a lot of time doing field research with marine mammals, especially sea otters and elephant seals. I also studied abroad in Iceland with the University of the Westfjords where I conducted a short study on the effects of human-caused stimuli on harbor seals in \u00cdsafj\u00f6r\u00f0ur with the help of my advisor, Dr. Sandra Magdalena Granquist.<\/p>\n

I have fallen in love with pinnipeds, behavioral ecology, and Iceland. I am so happy to have the opportunity to come back and continue working with Sandra and Haseeb. I am hoping to further investigate the impact that humans have on harbor seals in \u00cdsafj\u00f6r\u00f0ur!<\/p>\n

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Beatrix Tak\u00e1cs (MSc student) - Start: August 2025<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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My name is Beatrix and I\u2019m from Hungary. Since I grew up in a country without a sea or ocean my family would travel to Croatia every summer for our holidays. That\u2019s where I first tried snorkeling and fell in love with the underwater world. Later on, I watched numerous documentaries about life in the ocean and learned how to scuba dive. My interest in biology and marine ecosystems led to my bachelor\u2019s program, where I aimed to work on a project related to marine biology. That is the reason why I conducted my thesis on Cyprus by researching green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas<\/em>). Even though it was a great opportunity to work on a sea turtle research project, my passion has always been to work with sharks. For my master\u2019s project I\u2019ll be focusing on deep sea sharks\u2019 ecotoxicology, diet, and parasites with my supervisors, Haseeb Randhawa and Klara Jakobsd\u00f3ttir.<\/p>\n

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Clarke Alicia Blair (MSc student) - Start: August 2025<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"My name is Clarke Blair (she\/her) and I am developmental biologist and science educator from Toronto, Canada. I hold an honours BSc from the University of Toronto in neuroscience and cell biology, with a focus on developmental and reproductive biology. In my BSc, I was hungry for research and found opportunity to work in the lab with zebrafish, mice, mouse cell lines, human clinical data, and in the field with American bullfrogs. I have spent the past four years working in museum education at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto; I am passionate about inspiring people to be curious about the world around them. However, as much as I love museums, I missed the rigour of scientific research. Now, my own curiosity about the world around me has brought me back to school. I dream of work that takes me both out into the field and back into the lab, so I am eager to be here in beautiful Iceland applying my developmental and reproductive biology skillset to examining the effect of temperature on capelin gonadal development.<\/p>\n

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Annika Adams Baldwin (MSc student) - Start: August 2026<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
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My name is Annika Baldwin, and I am a MSc student in Aquatic Biology and Fisheries. I am originally from Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, where many summers collecting shells and fish skeletons on the Jersey Shore brought about my fish obsession. During my undergraduate studies, I became interested in marine host-parasite relationships, which led me to a year-long research project at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research in Trondheim, Norway to investigate how the sea trout habitat use and diet has changed over the past ten years according to their internal parasites. My work there taught me how much parasite communities can reveal about their environment and their host\u2019s life, and yet how little is known about so many of these species. I am very excited to continue pursuing my interest in parasitology at the University of Iceland through a project assessing the parasites of skate species in Icelandic waters.<\/div>\n

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Breki Bj\u00f6rnsson (BSc student) - Start: August 2026<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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While I\u2019ve always had a great interest in biology I never would\u2019ve imagined that I\u2019d end up studying it. Ever since I was a kid my main focus and passion has been illustration. While studying illustration at the Reykjav\u00edk School of Visual Arts, my then-girlfriend (now wife) gave me a microscope for my birthday. I spent hours looking at microorganisms and seeing what tiny creatures lived hidden among the fish and plants in my aquarium. Eventually I started going out and gathering samples from ponds, beaches, soil, and anywhere else I thought I might find something interesting. My final project during my first year of art school centered around microorganisms. I gathered samples from different places in the Capital region, examined and filmed the organisms I found, and tried to identify them as best I could. From this I created a series of posters and a sketchbook filled with watercolor illustrations of worms, rotifers, ciliates and various other microscopic organisms. What had started as a curiosity and source of inspiration for my artwork gradually developed into a much deeper interest in biology. After graduating, several people around me encouraged me to enroll in the biology program at H\u00cd, which I did. The transition from the arts to a much more academic field of study has proved challenging but also very rewarding. I\u2019m particularly drawn to aquatic ecosystems and organisms, and I\u2019m excited to explore these interests further through my bachelor\u2019s project.<\/div>\n

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Helga Xialan Haraldsd\u00f3ttir (BSc student) - Start: August 2026<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"My name is Helga from Iceland and when I was a child, I used to be rather sceptical and scared of the ocean. At the same time, I was convinced that I would one day become a great chef. After starting culinary school, however, I soon realised that cooking would be better suited as a hobby than a career. Feeling a little lost, I decided to pursue natural sciences during high school, despite being rather terrible at mathematics. During my time there, I had an amazing biology teacher who sparked my interests in becoming a biologist. That was the beginning of my journey, but my passion for marine biology did not emerge until the autumn of 2023, when I travelled to Bali to learn how to scuba dive. I completely fell in love with the tropical ocean and its incredible coastal biodiversity, particularly coral reefs. As I learned more about the current state of our oceans and the impacts of climate change, I realised that my future as a biologist would be centred around conservation. My bachelor\u2019s project will explore ecotoxicological aspects of blue whiting, under the supervision of Professor Haseeb S Randhawa.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Einar P\u00e9tur J\u00f3nsson (PhD student) - Start: October 2023 Being brought up in Iceland and spending much time by and in the sea now seems like an obvious path towards studying marine biology. My undergrad studies in marine biology were carried out in Chile, at the Pontific Catholic University of Chile, where I got to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1580,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-32","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/hrandhawa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/hrandhawa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/hrandhawa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/hrandhawa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1580"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/hrandhawa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":95,"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/hrandhawa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":833,"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/hrandhawa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32\/revisions\/833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/hrandhawa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}