Pardee Center Hosts Scholars From University of Iceland

The Pardee Center is hosting two visiting scholars – Dr. Brynhildur Davidsdottir, Associate Professor of Environment and Natural Resources, and Charlotte Ferrier, a MSc student; both from the University of Iceland – this semester.

Dr. Brynhildur Davidsdottir is an Associate Professor of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Iceland, and is the Director of the Graduate Program in Environment and Natural Resources. Dr. Davidsdottir, who had completed her PhD at Boston Univeristy and also taught at the Department of Geography and Environment at BU, is also an adviser to the Icelandic government in issues of climate change mitigation and is the chair of the government appointed specialist committee that assesses greenhouse gas mitigation in Iceland. Dr. Davidsdottir recently delivered a comprehensive technical/economic analysis of all climate change mitigation options for Iceland.

Much of Dr. Davidsdottir research has focused on: complex systems modeling of resource and environmental policy issues, such as (1) regional responses to various climate change policy options, (2) the dynamics of technological change towards a low carbon future (3) Indicators towards sustainable energy development and (4) valuing ecosystem services.

While at the Pardee Center, Dr. Davidsdottir will continue her research on the dynamics of technological change towards a low carbon future with a focus on (1) the dynamics of transforming the Icelandic economy towards being the first economy in the world relying only on domestic renewable energy (2) creating a framework for comparing the economic, social and environmental implications of the various alternatives (3) linking indicators of sustainable energy development to dynamic simulations models to enable the analysis of which alternative futures facilitate simultaneous movement towards sustainability in all three dimensions.

Charlotte Ólöf Jónsdóttir Ferrier received a MA (Hons) from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, in Italian and Art History, and subsequently moved to Mozambique, where she worked with young women on skills development and sexual health and researched cases of sexual abuse within the education system on behalf of ActionAid Mozambique.

She is taking her Masters in ‘Environment and Natural Resources’ at the University of Iceland and is currently working on her MSc thesis as a Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre Young Scholar, researching links between climate forecast and decision making within humanitarian organizations, and assessing ways to facilitate a shift from reactive to preemptive and preventive action, using a system dynamics approach.

Her thesis will focus specifically on the community of Doune Baba Dieye, in northern Senegal and aims to develop a dynamic simulation tool, which will utilize scientific forecast information to address flood related hazards in one of the world’s most vulnerable communities to climate change.

Dr. Davidsdottir and Charlotte Ferrier are both also involved in research on developing system analysis models for humanitarian relief, which they will carry out while at the Pardee Center.