Hi! My name is Alex Linz and I'm a student at the University of Wisconsin: Madison.  I've just completed my third year at Madison earning a degree in microbiology, with a certificate in German, and I'm planning on doing scientific research as a career.  This summer I'm excited to be going to Myvatn, Iceland,  (pronounced Mee-vawt) to study midges and their effects on the local ecology.  I've been working in a bacteriology lab on campus for about 2 years (Dr. Tim Donohue's lab researching biofuels, if you're interested), so I'm no stranger to research.  However, this will be my first experience with field work, and I'm excited to get out of the lab and into the wild!  As a microbiologist, studying midges (which are a kind of insect, sort of like a mayfly here in the States) and ecology is a little out of my comfort zone but I'm eager to learn more about both subjects!  I'm interested in environmental microbiology - the study of how microbes interact with the environment - so this should be a great learning experience for me.  Microbes help degrade midges after they die, and there are microbes in the lake where midges begin their lives, so I'll have plenty to get excited about.

Me doing science

So what is Iceland like?  First of all, it's not icy.  The first thing I learned is that Iceland is green, and Greenland is the icy one.  However, Iceland doesn't have trees.  It's more of a tundra, and there aren't many large animals either.  Iceland does have a wide variety of birds and plenty of life in the oceans, and of course the volcanoes and glaciers for which the country is famous. In the summer, the temperatures will be around 60 F. Iceland's population is about 320,000 people (for comparison, that's about the population of the Greater Madison Area) and 200,000 of those live near Reykjavik.  I'll be on the opposite side of the island.  The lab group is renting a farmhouse near the lake, and most of our work will be taking place at the Myvatn Research Station.  So it sounds like we'll really be out in the wilderness.  Just us and the midges.

I'll be where the A is.  Reykjavik is in the southwest.

I'll be leaving for Iceland this Wednesday.  Trying to pack everything you need for three months is very difficult!