Harald Wergeland

Wergeland 1963 in Copenhagen

Harald Nicolai Storm Wergeland (14 March 1912 – 25 January 1987) was a Norwegian physicist. He was a professor at the Norwegian Institute of Technology.

He was born in Norderhov as a son of forest manager Harald Nicolay Storm Wergeland (1884–1953) and Ebba Marie Weien (1889–1952). In 1937 he married Hedvig Louise Ording, a sister of Fredrik Ording.^[1]

He finished his secondary education in 1931. He graduated as a chemical engineer from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1936 and earned the dr.philos. degree in 1942. He was briefly a teacher at Trondheim Commerce School before working as an assistant at the Norwegian Institute of Technology from 1939.^[1]

Wergeland worked as a professor of physics from 1946 to 1979 at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, now the Norwegian University of Science and Technology at Gløshaugen.^[2][3] He also served as associate professor at Purdue University from 1948 to 1949.^[1] Wergeland participated in the foundation of CERN and was a leading member of Pugwash in Norway.^[2]

He served as praeses of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters from 1958 to 1965.^[4] He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1943, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters from 1964^[1] and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was decorated as a Knight, First Class of the Order of St. Olav in 1960 and received the Gunnerus Medal in 1970.^[1]

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