Christy and Matthias will share their personal experience of living with their two young children in Iceland during the COVID-19 pandemic. They will reflect on the impact the pandemic has on work, education and social life in a small island nation with less than 370,000 inhabitants, and give an overview of the country's unique response to weathering this crisis by combining science, technology, communication, and policy-making to balance public health and economic concerns. While some aspects of Iceland's COVID-19 response may be unique to a small state, other aspects might hold valuable lessons for other countries as well. The talk will conclude with an outlook on the current state of vaccinations and possible lasting impacts on Iceland's society. 

Christy Book-Tsang, a graduate of the MPH-International Health program at Oregon State University in 2003. Christy has a multicultural background, being born and raised in Hong Kong, receiving her higher education in the United States, married to a German, and living in Iceland since 2014. She has two decades of international business experience working with a wide range of companies, including tech startups, professional development organizations, and manufacturers of playground equipment, and suppliers of educational playthings. Her expertise is in sales operations, business development and project management. 

Matthias Book, a professor of software engineering and the head of the Computer Science Department at the University of Iceland. His research focus is on fostering and focusing communication between software project stakeholders on those aspects that are critical for a project’s success. Matthias is German and has been living in Iceland with Christy since 2014.