Henry Paul Hansen (April 28, 1907 – October 8, 1989) was an American

palynologist Palynology is the "study of dust" (from grc-gre, παλύνω, palynō, "strew, sprinkle" and ''-logy'') or of "particles that are strewn". A classic palynologist analyses particulate samples collected from the air, from water, or from deposits ...

known largely for his pioneering work on the vegetation history of the

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

and for his time as the dean of Graduate Studies at

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

from 1949 to 1972.

Early life

Henry Hansen was born on April 28, 1907, in

La Crosse La Crosse is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of La Crosse County, Wisconsin, La Crosse County. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's populat ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, to parents Andrew and Emma Petersen Hansen. In 1939 he was married to Helen Rivedal and had five children with her before she died in 1972. He later married Ethel Welch in 1979.

Education

Hansen obtained the Bachelor of Science degree in 1930 from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

, where he continued studying until he was awarded his M.Sc in 1931. From Wisconsin, Hansen moved to the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in 1935, where his thesis focused on the pollen analysis from bogs in the Puget Lowlands of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

Scientific career

Henry Hansen began teaching at

in 1939 as an instructor. His research continued throughout his time there, including the collection and analysis of over 50 palynological records for the Pacific Northwest. One of his seminal publications was ''Postglacial Forest Succession, Climate, and Chronology in the Pacific Northwest'', published in 1947. This work was all the more impressive given that chronologies at the time lacked stable age-depth controls later afforded by C¹⁴ dating.

Awards and recognition

* 1943-1944 - Guggenheim Fellowship * 1947-1948 -

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

References

*Heusser, C.J. 1990. Henry Paul Hansen 1907-1989, ''Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club''. 117(2), pp. 176–177. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hansen, Henry Paul American ecologists Oregon State University faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Palynologists 1907 births 1989 deaths