Last week (6th-7th November) a conference on biological research in Iceland was held in Reykjavík to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Icelandic biological society and that 35 years have passed since the Institute of biology at the University of Iceland was founded. The conference was hosted in Askja, at the University of Iceland, Decode genetics headquarters and the Nordic house. On the conference, 107 talks were given and 110 posters presented. Me and my co-workers from the University of Iceland (Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir) and the Agricultural University in Hvanneyri (Anna Guðrún Þórhallsdóttir and Helga María Hafþórsdóttir, master student) presented 2 talks (Samskipti stóðhesta & Heimasvæði og tímanotkun íslenskra stóðhesta) and one poster (Hafa stóðhestar hamlandi áhrif á samskipti hrossanna innan síns hóps?). Among others, we presented some of the results that I found in my master thesis study (The social structure and interactions within groups of horses (Equus caballus) containing stallions). Unfortunately, this time I did not present any results from our seal research, since we have only just started analysing data from the last summer.

Around 300 people participated on the conference, not only researchers, but also students and other interested people. On the conference you were able to learn about most of the biological research that are being made on Iceland at the moment. This means a lot of studies, since biology is a widespread field and Icelandic biologists are known for being quite active! For example, studies on mammals, birds, fishes, plants, biochemistry, genetics, immunology, bacteriology, virology, physiology, cell biology and evolution were presented.
At the moment, we are planning next summer’s field studies. It´s exciting, but I will tell you more about that later.

Best regards,
Sandra

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