1888-1957

Norwegian meteorologist and oceanographer who did extensive research on ocean physics and chemistry, explained the equatorial countercurrents, and developed a method of predicting tides and surf heights. Sverdrup was one of Vilhelm Bjerknes's original collaborators in the Bergen School of Meteorology and then focused on oceanography. As professor of geophysics at the University of Bergen (from 1926), he was involved with magnetic and oceanographic theory and the Bergen weather service. In 1935 he became head of Scripps Institute of Oceanography (La Jolla, California). He wrote Oceanography for Meteorologists and co-authored The Oceans, both in 1942. Sverdrup returned to Norway, heading the Norwegian Polar Institute at Oslo from 1948.