Carl-Herman Hjortsjö (8 December 1914 – 3 July 1978), born Carl-Herman Hirschlaff, was a Swedish

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

, physician, and physical anthropologist. His contributions to historical

osteology Osteology () is the scientific study of bones, practiced by osteologists . A subdiscipline of anatomy, anthropology, archaeology and paleontology, osteology is the detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, microbone mo ...

were instrumental in establishing it as an academic field in Sweden. Hjortsjö was born in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

, Sweden, to Herold Hirschlaff, a practicing physician, and Ester Hirschlaff (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Sandstedt). He obtained his

medical license A medical license is an occupational license that permits a person to legally practice medicine. In most countries, a person must have a medical license bestowed either by a specified government-approved professional association or a government ...

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

, Sweden, in 1942. During his studies at

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

's Department of Anatomy, Hjortsjö was taught by and Carl Magnus Fürst, two of Sweden's pioneering anatomists at the time. In 1945, Hjortsjö earned his

Doctor of Medicine A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin language, Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of ph ...

degree with a dissertation on the

morphogenesis Morphogenesis (from the Greek ''morphê'' shape and ''genesis'' creation, literally "the generation of form") is the biological process that causes a cell, tissue or organism to develop its shape. It is one of three fundamental aspects of deve ...

epithelial Epithelium or epithelial tissue is a thin, continuous, protective layer of cells with little extracellular matrix. An example is the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin. Epithelial ( mesothelial) tissues line the outer surfaces of man ...

pulmonary

primordium A primordium (; : primordia; synonym: anlage), in embryology, is an Organ (anatomy), organ or tissue in its earliest recognizable stage of development. Cell (biology), Cells of the primordium are called primordial cells. A primordium is the simp ...

—the development of the early lung tissue—in cats. In 1948, Hjortsjö made significant contributions to the study of human liver anatomy, becoming the first to demonstrate its segmental division. His findings later proved essential for advancements in liver surgery and transplantation techniques. Hjortsjö collaborated with archaeologist Karl Esaias Sahlström and osteologist Nils-Gustaf Gejvall on a physical anthropological investigation of the Luttra Woman, a Neolithic

bog body A bog body is a human cadaver that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog. Such bodies, sometimes known as bog people, are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated to between 8000 BC and the Second World War. Fi ...

discovered in 1943. Their findings, including a detailed description of the remains, were published in 1952. In 1969, Hjortsjö developed the first system to taxonomize human facial movements based on their appearances. This system included descriptions of the changes in appearance caused by the action of each facial muscle. American psychologists

Paul Ekman Paul Ekman (born February 15, 1934) is an American psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco who is a pioneer in the study of emotions and their relation to facial expressions. He was ranked 59th out of t ...

and Wallace Friesen later formalized these descriptions in 1978 as the

Facial Action Coding System The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) is a system to taxonomize human facial movements by their appearance on the face, based on a system originally developed by a Swedish anatomist named Carl-Herman Hjortsjö. It was later adopted by Paul E ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hjortsjo, Carl-Herman 1914 births 1978 deaths 20th-century Swedish physicians Lund University alumni People from Lund Swedish anatomists