Fridtjof Nansen

Fridtjof Nansen
Fridtjof Nansen LOC 03377u.jpg
Born October 10, 1861(1861-10-10)
Christiania, Norway
Died May 13, 1930 (aged 68)
Lysaker, Norway

Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (October 10, 1861 – May 13, 1930) was a Norwegian explorer, scientist and diplomat. Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his work as a League of Nations High Commissioner.

Initially starting out as pioneer sports skier, then as a polar explorer, Nansen achieved great success with his Arctic expedition aboard the Fram. He later became noted as a zoologist and oceanographer, and was a pioneer of the neuron theory. He was also a distinguished diplomat, eventually becoming Commissioner of refugees for the League of Nations. He was married to Eva Nansen (died 1907) and was the father of noted architect and humanist Odd Nansen and the grandfather of Eigil Nansen.

He is one of the key characters in the 2008 play Fram by Tony Harrison, which revolves around Nansen's change from a Social Darwinist to a humanitarian.

Contents

The Fram expedition to the Arctic

Nansen made his first voyage to Greenland waters in a sealing ship in 1882, and in 1888 succeeded in crossing the Greenland icefield on skis from east to west with Otto Sverdrup, Olaf Dietrichson, Kristian Kristiansen Trana, Samuel Balto and Ole Nielsen Ravna.

In 1893, he sailed to the Arctic in the Fram[1] (a purpose-built, round-hulled ship later used by Roald Amundsen to transport his expedition to Antarctica) which was deliberately allowed to drift north through the sea ice, a journey that took more than three years. Nansen's theory was premised on an article written by a Professor Mohn, in which the professor conjectured that articles determined to be from the Jeannette which foundered northeast of the New Siberian Islands and found on the southwest coast of Greenland must have drifted across the Polar Sea. In the introduction to Farthest North, Nansen said "It immediately occurred to me that here lay the route ready at hand" [2] across the Polar Sea. Nansem conjectured the Polar current's warm water "could hardly have been other than the Gulf Stream"[3] and was the agent behind the movement of the ice. During this first crossing of the Arctic Ocean the expedition became the first to discover the existence of a deep polar basin.

When, after more than one year in the ice it became apparent that Fram would not reach the North Pole, Nansen, accompanied by Hjalmar Johansen (1867–1913), continued north on foot when the Fram reached 84° 4´ N. This was a daring decision, as it meant leaving the ship not to return, and a return journey over drifting ice to the nearest known land some five hundred miles south of the point where they started. Nansen and Johansen started north on March 14, 1895 with three sledges, two kayaks and twenty-eight dogs. On April 8, 1895, they reached 86° 14´ N, the highest latitude then attained. The two men then turned around and started back, and did not find the land they expected at 83°N (it did not exist). In June 1895, they had to use their kayaks to cross open leads of water, and on July 24, they came across a series of islands. Here they built a hut of moss, stones, and snow, and wintered, surviving on walrus blubber and polar bear meat. In May of the following year (1896), they started off again for Spitsbergen. After travelling for a month, not knowing where they were, they happened upon the British Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition (led by Frederick George Jackson) whose party were wintering on the island. Jackson informed them that they were in fact on Franz Josef Land. Finally, Nansen and Johansen made it back to Vardø in the north of Norway.[4]

Map of the Fram voyage and Nansen's journey at the Fram Museum (Frammuseet).

He was the first to note and describe dead water.

Fridtjof Nansen
Dr. Nansen in 1914 during a trip to Siberia to write Gjennem Sibirien.

Academic career and scientific works

Nansen was a professor of zoology and later oceanography at the Royal Frederick University in Oslo and contributed with groundbreaking works in the fields of neurology and fluid dynamics.

Nansen was one of the founders of the neuron theory stating that the neural network consists of individual cells communicating with each other. He set out to study the nervous system of invertebrates and soon he became preoccupied with the question of how nerve cells communicated with each other. At that time, there was a major discussion whether the nervous system was a continuous structure of interconnected cells like the circulatory system (reticular theory) or if it consisted of separate neurons as key elements (the neuron doctrine).

It was a clever choice to look at this basic features of the nervous system in model organisms with a lucid nervous system, however his microscope could not tell him the answers without utilizing the newest technology developed by the nobel laureate Camillo Golgi. In February 1886 he took off to Italy, to Pavia, to work with Golgi. After mastering the technique during his short stay, he continued his explorations of the nervous system at the marine biological station in Napels, established by Dohrn, where he worked among others on amphioxus. Most probably, he was the first to apply the Golgi technique to lower vertebrates (chordates).

His work developed in line with and supported the work of contemporary scientists such as His and Forel, in showing that nerve cells all were enclosed by membranes, implying that nerve cells are discontinuous. He published these major contributions to the currently well accepted neuronal theory of the brain in German and English in established international journals, but it was not until he translated these papers into Norwegian that he received his doctorate degree in 1887 in Oslo. In this, he not only became the godfather of Norwegian (Scandic) neuroscience, he also became an early proponent of the neuronal theory, originally put forth by Ramón y Cajal, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Golgi in 1906.

Nansen did extensive research into the behavior and origin of ocean currents, following his experiences from the Fram expedition. He was, together with the Swedish mathematician V. Walfrid Ekman, deeply involved in the discovery of how currents are generated from the planetary rotation and the formulation of the theory of the Ekman spiral that explains the phenomenon. He also invented a bottle for collection of water samples from various depths known as the Nansen bottle that, further developed by Shale Niskin, is still in use.

Diplomatic and political career

Before Norway's dissolution of its union with Sweden on 7 June 1905, Nansen had been a devoted republican, along with other prominent Norwegians like the authors Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Arne Garborg. However, after hearing compelling arguments from Sigurd Ibsen and others, Nansen changed his position (as did Bjørnson and Garborg) and was thereafter influential in convincing Prince Carl of Denmark that he should accept the position as king of Norway. In a referendum where the Norwegian electorate chose between a monarchy and a republic, Nansen campaigned for monarchy, certain it was the right thing for Norway, although the general view was that Nansen would be elected President if Norwegians chose republican rule. Carl was crowned as King Haakon VII after the referendum results indicated Norwegians' strong preference for monarchy.

Following Norway's independence, Nansen was appointed as the Norwegian ambassador in London (1906-08), becoming a close friend of King Edward VII and assuring support from Britain in the campaign for an international guarantee of Norwegian territorial integrity.

In the period between the wars, Nansen's admirers made an unsuccessful effort to make him Prime Minister in a broad government based on all the non-socialist parties. This was proposed to counter the growth of the Norwegian Labour Party. In 1925 Nansen co-founded Fedrelandslaget (The Fatherland Society), an anti-socialist political organisation that folded at the outbreak of the Second World War.

The League of Nations

After World War I, Nansen became involved in the League of Nations as a High Commissioner for several initiatives, including organization of exchange of war prisoners and help to Russian refugees, in which campaign he originated the Nansen passport for refugees. He was aided by Vidkun Quisling in his work to help the Russian peasants.

In 1917 and 1918, Nansen was in Washington D.C, he convinced the allies to allow essential food supplies to be brought through their blockade. In 1920, the League of Nations asked Nansen to send home many prisoners of war, most being in Russia. With limited funds Nansen sent home 450,000 within a year and a half. In 1921, Nansen was asked by the League of Nations to administer the newly formed High Commission for Refugees. Nansen created the “Nansen passport” for refugees, it eventually became recognised by fifty-two governments.

Red Cross then asked him in 1921, to organize a relief program for the millions of Russians dying in the Russian Famine of 1921-1922. The West was suspicious that the Russian famine was created by government mismanagement of the economy and it was hard to gain funding, but still Nansen found enough supplies for between 7,000,000 and 22,000,000. For the next few years, Nansen did some more humanitarian work, and in 1922, won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was involved in the negotiations between the Greek and Turkish governments that lead to the Treaty of Lausanne.[5] In the latter half of the 1920s he worked to solve the crisis involving the Armenians in Turkey.[6]

In 1896, he was awarded the Grand Cross of The Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav and in 1925, he received the Collar as well.

The Nansen Academy was founded in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1938. It was given the Nansen name by his family to work for democracy and the human ideals in a time of dictatorships in Europe. It remains today working with dialogue in war zones and peace education.[7]

Posthumous honors

References

  1. ↑ Mowat, Farley (1973) (The Passage West). Ordeal by ice; the search for the Northwest Passage. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Ltd. pp. 366. OCLC 1391959. 
  2. ↑ Nansen, Fridtjof (1898). Farthest North. New York: Harper & Brothers. pp. 9. 
  3. ↑ ">Nansen, Fridtjof (1898). Farthest North. New York: Harper & Brothers. pp. 9. </ pg 235
  4. ↑ Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1922, p. xx-xxiii
  5. ↑ Clark, B. (2006). "Twice a Stranger". London: Granta Books.
  6. ↑ The Nobel institute on Nansen
  7. ↑ “Nansen Academy”, The Norway Post. Retrieved on 25 November 2008. 
  8. ↑ EGS on their Nansen medal
  9. ↑ NERSC home page on Nansen
  10. ↑ Centre for Development Co-operation in Fisheries page on the Nansen Programme
  11. ↑ Kongsberg municipality on naming Nansen street (Norwegian)
  12. ↑ Press release on street in Kosovo
  13. ↑ Oslo municipality on the square (Norwegian)

See also

Further reading

by Nansen

by others

External links

Academic offices
Preceded by
Rudyard Kipling		 Rector of the University of St Andrews
1925 - 1928		 Succeeded by
Sir Wilfred Grenfell
Nobel Peace Prize laureates

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