UNU-FTP fellow Warsha Singh to defend PhD this week

Former UNU-FTP fellow and scholarship recipient Warsha Singh will defend her PhD at the University of Iceland this Friday, June 12 at 10:00 in the Main Building. Her doctoral dissertation, "Towards efficient benthic survey design with the use of autonomous underwater vehicles" was funded through the United Nations University Fisheries Training Programme.

Opponents are Dr. Michael Fogarty, Director of ecosystem management program with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, USA, and Dr. Arthur Trembanis, Associate professor of oceanography and earth sciences at the University of Delaware, USA.

The doctoral supervisor was Dr. Gunnar Stefánsson, professor at the Faculty of Science, University of Iceland. Also on the doctoral committee is Dr. Erla Björk Örnólfsdóttir, Rector of the Holar Univeristy College, Jörundur Svavarsson, professor at the Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences University, and Dr. Thomas Philip Rúnarsson, Professor of Industrial Engineering and Computer Science, University of Iceland.

Warsh Singh was born in Fiji in 1978. She received a BS degree in marine biology from the University of South Pacific, Fiji Islands in 1999. In 2005, Warsha came to Iceland to participate in the United Nations University Fisheries Training Programme six month training, at which time she specialized in stock assessment.  She completed her master's degree in Environment and Natural Resources from the University of Iceland in 2008 through a scholarship granted by the UNU-FTP. She began her doctoral studies at the Faculty of Science, University of Iceland in 2009.