The Bornö Summer School took place from July 29—August 9, 2019, on the island of Storo Bornö, in the Gullmarnsfjord on the west coast of Sweden. The school was a collaborative project between the Universities of Copenhagen, Hamburg, Oslo and Stockholm, with lecturers from each institution. The 10 students who took part are studying in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany, but hail from diverse countries, including India, China, Cuba and Poland. The meeting was held at the Bornö Marine Research Station, which was founded in 1902 and is still in use today. The participants stayed on site and the meals were prepared there as well. Two lecturers ran the course
during the first week and two others did so in the second week, with the aid of programmers.
Lectures were held from 9-12 every morning. The topics included the shallow water and quasigeostrophic equations, and diverse phenomena including Rossby waves in the ocean, topgraphic waves in the atmosphere and instability. After lunch, the students programmed SW and QG models using Python. Then each simulated the various geophysical phenomena discussed in the lectures. The afternoon sessions frequently continued until dinner (at 7 pm), and occasionally into the evening. But there were breaks as well, to sail in the fjord, to swim with the jellyfish or to hike in the woods on the island. The students made presentations on the last day on chosen topics which
were relevant to the lectures. Others gave talks on the local geology, on ocean mixing and on the role of Himalayas in northern European climate.
The students evaluated the program on the last day, to give the organizers feedback on how to improve the program. The response was that the course was enjoyable and useful, even for those students who had seen some material previously and those who hadn’t. A number of students had little background in Python programming, and greatly improved over the two weeks. They praised the lectures, the exercises, the course content and the living quarters (and gave high marks for the food). The students also enjoyed the social aspects, getting to know others at similar stages in their studies.
Text and photos: Joe LaCasce / Univ. of Oslo