Inger Nafstad, née Danneborg (17 April 1934 – 22 May 2023) was a Norwegian veterinarian and toxicologist.

Personal life

She was born in Hemsedal as a daughter of

South Sámi South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

-Swedish reindeer herder Odd Danneborg and Anne, née Grøthe. She grew up in

Grøndalen Grøndalen is a valley in Nordenskiöld Land at Spitsbergen, Svalbard. It has a length of about 19 kilometers. The valley stretches westwards from the mountain pass Grøndalspasset, and debouches into Grønfjorden, at the eastern side of the fjord ...

with eight siblings and two half-siblings before attending school in Hemsedal and Voss. She married Per Nafstad in 1958. They had two children.

Career

After finishing her secondary education in 1954, she took the examen philosophicum at the University of Bergen in 1955, but moved to Oslo where she graduated from the

Norwegian School of Veterinary Science Norwegian School of Veterinary Science ( no, Norges veterinærhøgskole) or NVH was a public university located at Adamstuen in Oslo, that educated veterinarians and veterinary nurses as well as research within aquatic medicine, food safety ...

with the cand.med.vet. degree in 1961. She was employed as a research assistant at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science from 1961 and prosector from 1967. In 1970 she took the dr.med.vet. degree with the doctoral thesis ''Studies of Experimental Vitamin E Deficiency in Pigs''. She thereby became the first woman in Norway with a doctorate in veterinary medicine. Her doctoral adviser was Rolf Svenkerud and her opponents and Torstein Hovig. Nafstad was promoted from prosector to docent in 1974. After a spell as professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Nairobi from 1978 to 1980, she returned to the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science where she was promoted to professor in 1985. In 1997 she received an honorary degree at the Norwegian College of Agriculture. She was a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Nafstad was also a central board member of the

Norwegian Veterinary Association 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 ...

, executive committee member of NLVF as well as several other boards and committees. She was active in Soroptimist International.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nafstad, Inger 1934 births 2023 deaths People from Hemsedal Norwegian Sámi people Norwegian people of Swedish descent Norwegian veterinarians Norwegian toxicologists Norwegian School of Veterinary Science alumni Academic staff of the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science Norwegian expatriates in Kenya Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Southern Sámi people