Waldemar Christopher Brögger, 1851 - 1940

• Published in: Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1941
• Subjects: Arctic; Nestor; Norway; The Cathedral
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1941.0018; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbm.1941.0018

Waldemar Christofer Brögger, Professor Emeritus of Mineralogy and Geology at the University of Oslo and the Nestor of Scandinavian geologists, was born at Oslo on 10 November 1851. Educated at the Cathedral School and Oslo University, he began his scientific career as a zoologist, but soon, under the inspiring influence of Kjerulf, then Professor of Mineralogy and Geology, entered upon a study of the two subjects in which he was to achieve such high distinction. At the early age of thirty (1881) he was appointed Professor at the Technical High School at Stockholm, returning to Oslo nine years later as Kjerulf’s successor. This chair he held till his retirement in 1916. Brogger was remarkable among the geologists of Europe for the great range of his acquirements: equally distinguished as mineralogist, petrographer, palaeontologist and stratigrapher he occupied a unique position in the scientific circles of Norway and was for many years the central and leading personality in the Academy of Sciences at Oslo. Brogger’s first contribution appeared in 1873. In what must be one of the earliest detailed studies in ecology, he described the distribution of molluscs in the Oslo Fjord near Drobak, in relation to depth and nature of the bottom, distinguishing among the species listed at the various depths, those characteristic of arctic, boreal, and lusitanian provinces.