Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark (1 February 1867 – 20 July 1954) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

and

actuary An actuary is a business professional who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. The name of the corresponding field is actuarial science. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require asset man ...

Personal life

He was born in

Asker Asker ( no, Asker), properly called Askerbygda in Norwegian, is a district and former Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus, Norway. From 2020 it is part of the larger administrative municipality Asker, Viken (also known as Greate ...

as a son of farmer and mayor Bent Holtsmark and his wife Anne Elisabeth Gabrielsen. He was a brother of

Bernt Bernt is a Scandinavian variant of the German masculine given name Berend, which is the Low German form of Bernard (Bernhard). The name Bernhard means "strong bear" (from Old German ''bero'', "bear", and ''harti'', "strong"). Its use in Sweden was ...

, Torger and

Wilhelm Holtsmark Wilhelm may refer to: People and fictional characters * William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm" * Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Other uses * Mount ...

. Both Bernt and Torger were members of the

Parliament of Norway The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...

. In April 1893 in Kristiania he married Margrete Weisse, and through her he was a son-in-law of professor

Johan Peter Weisse Johan Peter Weisse (13 August 1832 – 7 March 1886) was a Norwegian philologist. Personal life He was born in Fluberg as a son of physician Joachim Frederik Weisse and his wife Grethe Fleischer. His grandfather had migrated to Norway from Brande ...

. He had two sons and three daughters;

Johan Peter Holtsmark Johan Peter Holtsmark (13 February 1894 – 10 December 1975) was a Norwegian physicist, who studied spectral line broadening and electron scattering. In 1929, while at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, Holtsmark established acoustics res ...

and Anne Holtsmark became professors and

Karen Holtsmark Karen Kristine Holtsmark (11 November 1907 – 7 March 1998) was a Norwegian painter. Biography Holtsmark was born at Ås in Akershus, Norway. She was a daughter of Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark (1867–1954) and his wife Margrete Weisse (1871� ...

became a notable painter. A third daughter Marie eventually took over the family farm Holtsmark in Lier, as former owner Torger Holtsmark had no children.

Career

He finished his secondary education in 1885, and took the teacher's education in 1892. He worked as a teacher from 1889 to 1901, and wrote several textbooks: ''Lærebog i fysik'' in 1898, ''Naturlære for middelskolen'' in 1905 with Daniel Isaachsen, and ''Lærebog i fysik for realgymnasiet og tekniske skoler'' in 1909. From 1899 to 1901 he edited the education periodical ''Den høiere skole''. From 1901 to 1902 he spent time at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...

, studying under

Wilhelm Wien Wilhelm Carl Werner Otto Fritz Franz Wien (; 13 January 1864 – 30 August 1928) was a German physicist who, in 1893, used theories about heat and electromagnetism to deduce Wien's displacement law, which calculates the emission of a blackbody ...

. In 1902 Holtsmark delivered his doctoral thesis, which bore the name ''Eine Methode für die Intensitätsmessung von Röntgenstrahlen nebst einer Berechnung der Wellenlänge derselben''. He returned to Norway the same year, and was hired at the

Norwegian College of Agriculture The Norwegian University of Life Sciences ( no, Norges miljø- og biovitenskapelige universitet, NMBU) is a public university located in Ås, Norway. It is located at Ås in Viken, near Oslo, and at Adamstuen in Oslo and has around 5,200 stude ...

. From 1910 he was an

in the insurance company ''Livsforsikringsselskapet Fram''. In 1920 he became the director of the business secondary school Kristiania Commerce School. From 1920 to 1923 he was also a member of the National Price Council. He died in 1954.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holtsmark, Gabriel Gabrielsen 1867 births 1954 deaths Norwegian educators Norwegian physicists Norwegian magazine editors Norwegian actuaries People from Asker Norwegian expatriates in Germany Norwegian College of Agriculture faculty