Kristine Bonnevie

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kristine Bonnevie (born 1872-10-08 in Nidaros, died 1948 in Oslo) was a Norwegian biologist and Norway's first female professor. Her fields of research were cytology, genetics and embryology. She was one of nine children of Jacob Aall Bonnevie. Her family moved from Nidaros to Kristiania in 1886.

Bonnevie started studying zoology in 1892, later switching to biology. She completed her doctoral dissertation, «Undersøgelser over kimcellerne hos Enteroxenos østergreni» [studies on the germ cells of Enteroxenos østergreni] in 1906. She also studied under Arnold Lang in Zürich in the years 1898-99, under Theodor Boveri in Würzburg in 1900-01, and under E. B. Wilson at Columbia University in New York from 1906 to 1907. She succeeded Johan Hjort as leader of the Zootomic laboratory in 1900. She was a professor at Det Kongelige Frederiks Universitet from 1912 to 1937, and founded the Institute of inheritance research in 1916.

In 1911, Bonnevie became the first female member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Later, she founded the Norwegian association for female academics, leading it in the years 1922-1925. She established a study home for young girls in 1916 and a students' house in 1923. Her sister Honoria was the wife of Vilhelm Bjerknes. Kristine Bonnevie was a member of the city council in 1908-1919, a deputy member of Stortinget, the Norwegian national assembly, in 1916-1918, and a member of the University's broadcasting board from 1927 to 1937.

Kristine Bonnevie received the Royal Order of Merit in gold in 1920, The Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, 1st class, in 1946, and "Fridtjof Nansen's reward" in 1935. The biology building on Blindern at the University of Oslo is named Kristine Bonnevie's House.