Adolf Noreen was born in Östra Ämtervik in Värmland and wrote a thesis on the Frykdal dialect. The thesis deals with the dialect of his home town and was the first dialect description based on scientific principles.
Noreen published language history manuals, for example about Fornisländska in Altisländische Grammar (1884) and about Ancient Swedish in Altschwedische Grammar (1904).
In his great work Vårt språk (Our language)(1903–1924) he presents his ethos of language and presents a basic plan for grammar. Noreen was also an advocate for the spelling reform in 1906.
Between 1887 and 1919, Adolf Noreen was professor of Nordic languages, was elected a member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities in 1902, as a member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1917 and became a member of the Swedish Academy in 1919.
Together with Johan August Lundell he founded the school Upsala Enskilda Läroverk (now Lundellska) in 1892.
Frithiof Holmgren established Sweden's first physiological laboratory in 1862 and became the country's first professor of physiology at the age of 33. He was also a most prominent teacher at Uppsala University.
As a scientist, he became internationally known with the discovery of the retinal current in the eye.
The studies of color blindness made Holmgren internationally famous and in 1874 he described his method of using different colored "sefir yarn dolls", the so-called wool yarn sample, to demonstrate color blindness.
The method was of great practical importance for people in signalling services, such as railway personnel and seafarers. A train accident in Lagerlunda in 1875 was suspected of a train driver not being able to distinguish between red and green. No one had thought that the colour vision could have an impact on railway staff.
The equipment used by Holmgren in the discovery of the retina lattural stream, i.e. the retina's electrical response to light impressions. The equipment consists of a mirror galvanometer and a light catcher with a clockwork that drives the mirror. Photo: Museum of Medicine in Uppsala.
Sefirgarn dolls for carrying out the test of colour vision developed by Holmgren and which became mandatory for all those who would be employed in rail and sea traffic. Photo: Museum of Medicine in Uppsala.
A more macabre study that Holmgren undertook focused on whether beheading was a painless method of execution. Holmgren was therefore present at four beheadings to investigate the method from a physiological point of view.
According to Holmgren, the case studies showed that beheading as a method met the requirements for a painless way of execution.
Holmgren also participated in the debates in Verdandi, and his radical stance appeared in his dictation to the protocol of the consistorio:
"I consider the freedom of thought as one of man's most precious privileges, and the university where the tenet of thought is not primarily, does not, in my view, fulfil its task. To educate the studying youth to thinking men, should, according to my understanding, be one of the university's main tasks.".
Frithiof Holmgren also emphasized the importance of physical education and formed the Students' Sharp Shooting Association, the Students' Gymnastics Association and was chairman of the folk dance association Philochoros and promoter in Uppsala swimming society.
Åke Holm was born in Norrtälje and later became Sweden's foremost arachnolog (spider scientist) and he is seen as the creator of modern spider embryology.
He published significant work in embryology and taxonomy and led research trips to Abisko and the Torneträsk area, East Africa, Spitmountains, Greenland and Malaysia. Holm's spider research focused in particular on the Swedish mountain fauna and on the fauna of the Arctic and East Africa. One of the results was that new species were discovered.
Åke Holm together with participants on one of the research trips to East Africa. Photo: Museum of Evolution in Uppsala.
Olle Hedberg who participated on one of the research trips to East Africa. Photo: Museum of Evolution in Uppsala.
Åke Holm was museum curator at the Department of Zoology from 1947 to 1975 and he was as curator at the Zoological Museum in charge of the collections ranging from the time of Linnaeus and Thunberg.
Robin Fåhræus was born in Stockholm and was professor of pathology from 1928 to 1955.
With its epochal examinations of the suspension stability of the red blood cells (ESR or sed rate), Fåhræus has reached international notoriety.
In his dissertation from 1921, The SuspensionStability of the blood, the speed with which the blood cells drop to the bottom of a test tube and the lowering reaction was described as a sensitive albeit unspecific indication of ongoing disease processes in the body.
Together with The Svedberg, Fåhræus contributed to the determination of the molecular mass of the haemoglobin.
Examples of his lifelong writing are the books Blod in the history of medicine (1924) and The History of Medicine (1944–1950).
Fåhræus, together with Anders Diös, pushed forward the restoration of the national hall at Uppsala Castle.
Image description: Robin Fåhraeus at University House, Uppsala 1955. Photo: Uppsala-Bild / Upplandsmuseet. [The image is cropped] Click here for an uncropped image
Fredrik Tamm was born in Tveta in Södermanland and defended 1875 with a treatise on Swedish etymology, which is the doctrine of Proverbs ' historical origins and elaborated Etymological Swedish dictionary through the letter K.
Tamm devoted himself especially to etymological works and Swedish dictionary theory. For many years, Tamm stood in for the ailing professor of Swedish, Frits Läffler. From 1883-1898, Tamm was acting professor of Swedish for a total of ten years.
Uppsala University attempted to establish a professorship for Tamm, but it was not granted by the Royal Council. Maj:t, probably because at the time there was already a professor of Nordic languages and one of Swedish language. 1897 Tamm instead received the name, honour and dignity of professor.
Shortly afterwards, Tamm's wife passed away and he was diagnosed with facial cancer. The operation he underwent left him with a severe speech impediment.
On his birthday, March 30, 1905 he died and Nathan Söderblom held the eulogy in which was said:
"No one could be a better listener than he, this whether it was funny stories or scientific lectures, the latter, which he to the end, faithfully visited, whereever they were offered".
Image description: Fredrik Tamm with his wife Augusta Josefina Elisabeth Lundqvist, Uppsala 1894. Photo: Alfred Dahlgren / UUB. [The image is cropped] Click here for an uncropped image
Finn Malmgren was born in Gothenburg. In 1912 he begun studying at Uppsala University where he completed a bachelor's degree in Mathematics, physics and chemistry.
Malmgren later participated in the polar researcher Roald Amundsen's expedition to the glacial sea as assistant to the scientist Harald Ulrik Sverdrup.
On-board the ship Maud, they left the Nome in Alaska in the summer of 1922 to, after spending three and half years on the ice, return to Alaska in August in 1925. Together they managed to collect a large research material and several observations.
Malgren defended, in 1927, a Ph.D. thesis on the properties of the sea ice. Later, Malmgren was associate professor in meteorology.
Finn Malmgren, May 1925, in front of the magnetic observation field. Photo: Stockholm University.
Finn Malmgren, May 1925 at his hoarfrost registrator. Photo: Harald Ulrik Sverdrup / Stockholm University.
At the North Pole expedition with the airship Italia in 1928, it crashed on the ice north of Spitsbergen. After a long walk, Finn Malmgren died and his remains remained on the ice. Part of the expedition was rescued by the Russian icebreaker Krassin.
Malmgren's name is on the Västmanlands-Dala nation's website Burial site and a statue of him, made by sculptor Nils Sjögren, was erected in 1931 in Börjeparken next to the Västmanland-Dala nation. The Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University awards a prize every three years in his memory for "contributions to Arctic research".
Axel W. Persson was born in Kvidinge and was early interested in archaeology.
Persson's studies and interest in the Greek language led to his becoming an associate professor in Greek language and literature 1915, in Classical Antiquity and ancient history 1921. In Uppsala Persson became professor of Classical antiquities and ancient history in 1924.
Persson was the leader of successful excavations in Greece (Asine 1922–1930, Change and Midea 1926–1927, 1937 and 1939 and in Berbati 1936–1937) and Turkey (Milas 1938 and Labraynda 1948–1950).
Special attention was the unplundered dome tomb in Dendra With treasures from Mycensk time that was excavated 1926. The discovery was designated as the largest archaeological find after the tomb of Tutankhamun in Egypt. In the grave rested a king, a queen and a princess. In addition, precious grave gifts were found such as gold swords and bowls of precious metals. The findings from the dome tomb ended up at the National Museum of Athens. Persson's results were published in scientific monographs such as the Royaltombs at Dendra Near Midea (1931). That work is considered a classic.
Together with his wife, during World War II he made an important humanitarian effort for Greece in the service of the Red Cross.
After the end of World War II, Persson made new excavations. In Labraynda, the goal was to find the origins of the Minoan culture. However, a temple site was found for classical and Roman times. Shortly afterwards, Persson died of a stroke.
From 1924 to 1951 Axel W. Persson was professor of classical archaeology and made his findings, his writing and his lectures the classical archaeology known and appreciated in Sweden. Persson was awarded the Övralidpriset.
Persson was regarded at his death as one of the world's leading archaeologists. He is also the father of Viktor Persson, better known as the book-Viktor.
The first four years Hans Rosling lived in the district of Luthagen and then moved the family to the Svartbäcken district in Uppsala. After graduation, Rosling studied statistics and medicine at Uppsala University. The interest in public health science led, during a trip in Asia 1972, to a course in social medicine at St. Johns Medical College in Bangalore, India.
After a medical degree in 1975 and work as an AT-doctor in Hudiksvall, he trained further and acquired competence in the centre of Medicine at Uppsala University in 1977.
During the years 1979-1981 the spouses worked in Nacala Porto in northern Mozambique, where Hans was a district doctor and his wife, Agneta was midwife. In the Nacala district, an epidemic erupted in 1981, of a previously unknown spasmodic paralysis, with over 1 500 victims, whereof most women and children. The paralysis was linked to a highly poor and highly one-sided diet consisting of a toxic form of manioc (cassava).
Rosling described the disease in his doctoral thesis and named it Konzo. This means "bound bones" in the Congolese language where the disease was once described in 1938. During the 1980s, there were several outbreaks of Konzo in other African countries.
During the years 1983-1996, Rosling worked as a teacher and researcher at Uppsala University in collaboration with several universities in Africa and Asia. He was appointed in 1997 Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.
in 1999 Rosling began lecturing with a new kind of animated bubble chart that showed the World's Socio-economic state and development over time. The program was called Trendalyzer and had been developed by his son and son's wife, with whom he co-founded the Gapminder Foundation.
The lectures made complicated statistics about the World's development comprehensible to the general public, decision makers and opinion-formers. The lectures spread through web and TV worldwide, and governments and organizations hired him as a lecturer and advisor.
Rosling devoted his professional life to global health, Global health problems, and how these are related to poverty. With the conviction that reason and knowledge improves the world and that we can eradicate extreme poverty and reduce CO2 emissions, Rosling pointed out that it is the richest billion of the earth's population that first and foremost must reduce CO2 emissions because they account for half of them.
Hans Rosling's memoirs How I Learned to understand the world, written together with the journalist Fanny Härgestam, was published posthumously in 2017 and Factfulness, written in collaboration with Ola and Anna Rosling Rönnlund, released in 2018.
Agnes Geijer was born in October 1898 in an academic home in Uppsala. She later became an art teacher and textile history at the School of Home Economics from 1921 to 1927 and assistant professor at the Swedish National Museum of History and the National Museum. She was also the most leading researcher in Nordic textile history of her time.
She was the leader of Pieta's preservation Department in 1930 – 1949 and head of the Swedish National Heritage Board textile department.
In 1938 Geijer received her doctorate with a dissertation on ancient textiles from the excavations at Björkö (Birka) and made a groundbreaking contribution to textile research. The textiles found at Birka were of different materials and produced differently, sometimes with unknown techniques. Geijer's work with the findings at Birka showed that Viking-age costumes could be reconstructed and that their origin could be determined.
Agnes Geijer published several writings, such as medieval textiles of Swedish manufacturing, textile treasures in Uppsala Cathedral and from the history of textile art that has been translated into English, which has given her international recognition.
To strengthen the Nordic textile research, she set up the foundation Agnes Geijer's Fund for Nordic Textile Research and the foundation has been active since 1988.
Agnes Geijer (to the right). at a preserved Polish banner from the 1600 of the Swedish State Trophy collection. Photo: Statens Trofésamling 1959.
Agnes Geijer (to the right) on Pietas textile preservation. Photo: Svenska Journalen 1942.
Otto von Friesen was born in Kulltorps Parish, Jönköping County and his most important scientific work deals with the runic script.
1897 became von Friesen docent at the Nordic languages at Uppsala University.
He published about the descent of the Runic script (1906) and the Smoke Stone (1920) in which he claimed that the enigmatic stone is about a conflict between Östgötar and Frisian merchants.
During the years 1905–1936 was von Friesen professor of Swedish language, became a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1928 and elected to the Swedish Academy in 1929.
