Alumni and Grantee News
Fulbright Iceland
Alumni and grantees after successful day of planting trees
The Fulbright Alumni Association in Iceland (FFSÍ) held its annual meeting in February and a new board was elected. On the board for 2025 are Sóllilja Bjarnadóttir (chair), Hanna Þráinsdóttir, Margaret Cormack, Meg Matich and Sólveig Sanchez.
FFSÍ organized a well-attended Fulbright Happy Hour in April and another one in May, following tree planting in the Fulbright Forest. This was the third time FFSÍ planted trees since the inauguration of the Fulbright Forest in 2022. This time grantees and alumni planted 560 trees, which brings the total number of trees to 1605, almost reaching the goal of at least one tree for each grantee. This goal will be met next year!
A few alumni and grantee highlights:
- Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir (Fulbright Arctic Initiative III Scholar 2021-2023) was elected the Rector of the University of Iceland in March by students and staff of the university. She will start the 5-year term on July 1st. We congratulate Silja Bára on this impressive achievement and note that now three of seven universities in Iceland will be led by Fulbright alums! (Margrét Jónsdóttir Njarðvík at Bifröst University and Áslaug Ásgeirsdóttir at the University of Akureyri being the other two).
Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir with outgoing Rector Jón Atli Benediktsson (Photograph courtesy of University of Iceland)
- Sadie Cook (Fulbright fellow 2020-21) opened the exhibition Everything I want to Tell You at the Reykjavik Art Museum at the end of May. The exhibition documents a year-long collaboration with fellow artist Jo Pawlowska and will remain open until the end of July. The Commission of course attended the opening and we recommend you don´t miss it if you are in Reykjavik!
- Lára Jóhannsdóttir (Fulbright Arctic Initiative II Scholar 2018-2019) was appointed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy in Spain to participate in an expert committee on corporate social responsibility in Spain.
- Hildur Hjörvar (Fulbright Fellow 2024-2025) won the Mancini Prize for best master’s thesis in European law and European legal thought at Harvard University School of Law at graduation in May.
- This winter Bridget Cassata (Fulbright Fellow 2024-25) has participated in a research project called “A Blood test to diagnose Parkinson’s disease” which won the 2025 University of Iceland Science and Innovation Prize in the Health Category. We are proud that Bridget spent her Fulbright year working with the group and contributing to this important research.
- Erlendur Sveinsson (Fulbright Fellow 2014-2015) won the Icelandic Music Award in best music video category for directing the music video for Bríet x Birnir – 1000 orð.