Erling Christophersen was a Norwegian botanist, geographer and diplomat. He participated in and led several notable scientific expeditions in the 20th century, including the fifth Tanager Expedition

Tanager Expedition

The Tanager Expedition was a series of five biological surveys of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands conducted in partnership between the Bureau of Biological Survey and the Bishop Museum, with the assistance of the U.S. Navy. Four expeditions occurred from April to August 1923, and a fifth in July...

 (1924) to Nihoa

Nihoa

Nihoa , also known as Bird Island or Moku Manu, is the largest and tallest of ten islands and atolls in the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands . The island is located at the southern end of the NWHI chain, southeast of Necker Island...

 and Necker Island

Necker Island

Necker Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean, north of the Tropic of Cancer, located at . It is part of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, located northwest of Nihoa and northwest of Honolulu, and is part of the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge within the Northwestern Hawaiian...

 and the Norwegian Scientific Expedition to Tristan da Cunha

Tristan da Cunha

Tristan da Cunha is a remote volcanic group of islands in the south Atlantic Ocean and the main island of that group. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying from the nearest land, South Africa, and from South America...

 (1937–1938).

Early life

Christophersen was born in Christiania

Christiania

-Places:* Christiania or Kristiania, names of Oslo * Freetown Christiania , a self-proclaimed autonomous neighborhood of Copenhagen, Denmark* Christiania Township, Minnesota, a township in Jackson County...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 (now known as Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

) in 1898. He attended the University of Christiania from 1918–1921, and received his Ph.D from Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 in 1924. Christophersen's dissertation, "Soil reaction and plant distribution in the Sylene National Park, Norway", focused on the art and science of applied forest ecology, or silviculture

Silviculture

Silviculture is the practice of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests to meet diverse needs and values. The name comes from the Latin silvi- + culture...

, of alpine plants in Norway.

Career

Christophersen was a professor of botany at the University of Hawaii

University of Hawaii

The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...

 from 1929-1932. He was instrumental in developing and leading the scientific expedition to Tristan da Cunha from 1937-1938. His book, Tristan da Cunha, the lonely island (1938), is an account of the expedition.

Selected publications

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• "Vascular plants of Johnston and Wake Islands" (1931)
• "Plants of Gough Islands" (1934)
• "Flowering plants of Samoa" (1935)
• Tristan da Cunha, the Lonely Isle (1938)

External links