Sailing for science: Umeå students on the One Ocean Expedition
NEWS
In early spring 2025, master’s and PhD students from Umeå University were able to apply for a month-long course onboard the ship S/S Statsraad Lehmkuhl, which will voyage across the north-west passage as a part of the One Ocean Expedition. Among the applications, two participants from Umeå University were selected.
After the application deadline on 7 April, the hosting university UiT – the Arctic University of Norway selected two participants from Umeå University: Lena Leimgruber and Nikiforos Staveris. Lena Leimgruber is a Doctoral candidate in Language Studies, and Nikiforos Staveris is a Master student in Computer Science. They will board the ship in September and voyage between Cambridge Bay, Canada and Whittier, Alaska. Onboard, they will take part on the course “Arctic Future Pathfinders – A journey through the Northwest Passage”.
Lena Leimgruber is a Doctoral candidate in English literature at Department of Language Studies at Umeå University. Her research focuses on speculative fiction, postcolonial literature and ecocriticism, with a focus on the Arctic.
Nikiforos Staveris has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Athens University of Economics and Business, and studies the master’s program in Artificial Intelligence at Department of Computer Science at Umeå University.
The course “Arctic Future Pathfinders – A journey through the Northwest Passage” is a 10 ECTS course for master’s and PhD students. It is linked to Norway’s Arctic Ocean 2050 initiative and the upcoming International Polar Year in 2032/33, aiming to train students and young academics to become essential Arctic researchers.
Representing The Arctic Six
The hosting university is one of the Arctic universities within the alliance The Arctic Six. They tasked all other Arctic Six universities to nominate researchers or students to the expedition, which enabled people from Umeå University to apply. The Arctic Six is represented on the voyage by at least one participant from each university.
