Harald Skjervold

Harald Skjervold (1972)

Harald Skjervold (born March 8, 1917 in Inderøy , Nord-Trondelag , Norway ; † May 3, 1995 in As, Akershus , Norway) was a Norwegian animal breeding scientist.

Life

He was born in 1917 on a farm north of Trondheim (Norway) and obtained his university entrance qualification through secondary education. 1943–46 he studied at the agricultural college in As. He then worked for two years as a research assistant at the Swedish Animal Breeding Institute in Wiad (with Gaston Bonnier) and for another five years as an animal breeding consultant in the province of Oppland (Central Norway). A Marshall Scholarship enabled him to study at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. In 1954 he became research director at the Animal Breeding Institute of the Norwegian Agricultural University in As and in 1959 he received his PhD B. This was followed by a study visit to Iowa State University in Ames with the leading population geneticist Jay Lush . In 1965 Skjervold became a professor for animal breeding and until 1987 took over the management of the institute for animal breeding and domestic animal genetics at the agricultural college in Vollebeck.

Skjervold initiated experimental work in the fields of animal breeding and genetics in cattle, pigs and sheep. He used the diverse data from the breeding associations and developed breeding plans for the important livestock species using new computer technology. From 1968 he initiated courses with international teachers to obtain the degree of Dr. Ph. And also gave foreign students the opportunity for further training (e.g. BH-J. Langholz). As early as 1957, he used the ultrasonic measurement technology to determine the thickness of the back fat in living pigs as a new selection instrument and later also used computer tomography to assess the meat-fat ratio in carcasses. An important contribution was the support for the expansion of artificial insemination, the development of new methods for breeding value assessment and integration into Norwegian cattle breeding.

Later he also dealt with the fish species salmon and rainbow trout and thereby promoted a new industry in Norway. In addition, he has now published on biotechnology and genetic engineering as well as on securing world food. He published a total of 79 original articles in national periodicals and 57 scientific articles in Norway. He was co-editor of 5 international journals.

Main work

• From artificial insemination to insemination breeding. Manuscript, 1925
• The optimal structure of insemination breeding, 1958
• Population Genetics II: Lectures with Exercises at the University of Agriculture, 1959
• Fattening properties of cattle, 1959
• The optimal use of the progeny testing stations in breeding work. With Hans-Jürgen Langholz. In: Animal Breeding and Genetics, Vol. 80, 1964, Issues 1-4, pp. 197-207
• Pig farming and pig production, 1965
• Artificial insemination as the most important aid in modern cattle breeding. Translated from the Norwegian by Hans-Jürgen Langholz, 1966
• Pet book, Oslo, 1966, 2nd edition, 528 pp.
• Tierzucht, Oslo: Landbuchverlag, 1973, 242 pp.
• Animals / plants. With Grethe Tuven and Rudolf Vie, Oslo: Landbuchverlag, 1977 and 1983
• Cattle breeding in Norway. Oslo, 1982
• Body Composition Estimation in Live Animals, 1982
• Breeding planning for pigs in Norway
• Application of biotechnology in future breeding, 1983
• Genetic engineering - inheritance in a new way, 1986, 192 pp.

Awards

• 1963 Foreign Correspondent for the Italian Society for the Promotion of Animal Breeding, Milan, Italy
• 1965 Prize from the Körber Foundation
• 1968 elected member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Norway
• 1968 founding professor for the new University of Tromsø (Northern Norway)
• 1972 Justus von Liebig Prize of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation , presented by the Dean of the Agricultural Faculty of Christian-Albrecht-Univ. Kiel, Germany
• 1978 honorary doctorate to Dr. agr. hc by the University of Göttingen , Germany
• 1978 "The Bronze Bull" by the Swedish Animal Breeding Association
• 1978 elected member of the Agriculture Department of the Finnish Academy of Sciences
• 1978–1982 President of the Genetics Commission of the European Association for Animal Production (EVT)
• 1979 Knight 1st class of the Order of St. Olav , Norway
• 1980 elected member of the Agricultural Academy of Sciences, Sweden
• 1986 UOVO D'ORO ("Golden Egg"), Italian award for outstanding scientific contributions
• 1986 Hermann von Nathusius Gold Medal from the German Society for Zuchtungskunde, Germany

literature

• Hans-Joachim Langholz: Obituary for Professor Harald Skjervold. In: Zkde, 67, 1995, issue 4,
• Nils Standal u. Odd Vangen: In memoriam. Professor Dr. agric. Harald Skjervold. In: Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, 45, 1995, H 3, 145-146
• Norwegian Biographical Lexicon: Harald Skjervold, agricultural scientist

Web links

• German Society for Breeding Science
• Harald Skjervold in the store norske leksikon (Norwegian)
• Harald Skjervold in Norsk biografisk leksikon (Norwegian)
• Wikipedia Norway: Harald Skjervold , accessed March 28, 2015

Individual evidence

1. ^ Previous holders of the Hermann von Nathusius Medal
2. ↑ Harald Skjervold in the Norwegian Biographical Lexicon