Adolf Severin Jensen

Adolf Severin Jensen (born May 23, 1866 in Slangerup , † August 29, 1953 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish zoologist .

Life

Adolf Severin Jensen was the son of master saddler Jens Madsen Jensen (1830–1883) and his wife Andrea Jensen Schwartz (1844–1905). He married on July 20, 1889 in Hillerød the singing teacher Marie Jacobine Henriette Augusta Bloch (1861-1924), daughter of the lieutenant and war councilor Jørgen Theodor Bloch (1817-1892) and his wife Cicilie Wilhelmine Eleonora Tamm (1826-1904). The son Kai Adolf Jensen (1894–1971) emerged from the marriage, who as a doctor was especially important for tuberculosis research. After the death of his first wife, Adolf Severin Jensen married Johanne Cathrine Høyer (1886–1955), daughter of the commercial gardener Hector Frederik Jansen Estrup Høyer (1853–1933) and his wife Dora Christine Hansen (1862–1927).

Adolf Severin Jensen became a student in 1884 and graduated as cand. Mag in 1892. in natural history, geography and zoology. He was then employed at the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen . For the first four years he was an assistant in the vertebrate department and then moved to the marine animal department, where he became department head in 1915. In his early years he also worked as a teacher in schools, seminars and evening classes in order to improve his salary. From 1917 to 1936 he was professor of zoology, head of the vertebrate department and chairman of the museum council. He also worked as a zoology teacher at the State Teachers' College.

In 1902 he took part in a Norwegian fisheries biology expedition and in 1906, together with the geologist Poul Harder , went to Greenland for the first time in order to use shell fossils to detect postglacial climate changes. Since the seal populations in Greenland, which formed the basis of food for the population, were declining at this time , Adolf Severin Jensen explored the entire coast from Cape Farvel to Uummannaq in 1908/09 . He recognized the potential of cod fishing in Greenland and thus laid the foundation for decades of successful Greenland fishing. He was considered an expert in Greenlandic fisheries and also worked as an ichthyologist in Denmark . In 1912 he published the marine biological research results of the Ingolf expedition . Together with Louis Bobé, he was the source of ideas and one of the editors of Grønland i tohundredeaaret for Hans Egedes landing , which appeared in 1921 and was the most comprehensive scientific description of the country. In 1928 he published an overview of the Greenland fauna . He published biological works as well as necrologist and popular science articles well into old age.

From 1913 to 1931 he was editor of the journal of Dansk Naturhistorisk Forening , where he also gave over 50 lectures. From 1917 to 1934 he was its chairman. He was editor of Det Grønlandske Selskab's annual journal for over ten years and was made an honorary member in 1944. In 1929 he became a member of the Naturfredningsrådets and the Videnskabernes Selskab . In 1918 he received an honorary doctorate from Lund University . In 1911 he was made a knight of the Order of Dannebrog . In 1926 he became Dannebrogsmand and in 1933 he was given the command of the Komtur .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography in Dansk Biografisk Leksikon