Nils Andreas Sørensen (8 December 1909 – 8 June 1987) was a Norwegian chemist and professor of organic chemistry at the Norwegian Technical College in Trondheim.

Early life and education

Nils Andreas Sørensen was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was a son of Inge Sørensen (1875-1951) and Helene Raknerud (1879-1968), and was a grandson of newspaper editor Lars Raknerud. In 1936 he married

chemical engineer In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is a professional, equipped with the knowledge of chemical engineering, who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products and deals with the ...

Jørgine Stene (1905–1997) with whom he had worked in the lab of nutritional chemist Sigval Schmidt-Nielsen(sv) (1877–1956).

Career

He earned his Ph.D. degree in 1937 and was appointed professor of organic chemistry at the

Norwegian Institute of Technology The Norwegian Institute of Technology (Norwegian: ''Norges tekniske høgskole'', NTH) was a science institute in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university for 58 years, after which it was m ...

from 1939 to 1977. He published about one hundred scientific papers with a primary focus on

carbohydrates In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or may ...

, carotenoids and natural

acetylene Acetylene (systematic name: ethyne) is the chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in its pure ...

compounds. In addition to the field of organic chemistry, he also contributed to botanics. He collaborated with his wife Jørgine Stene on many of his projects and they co-wrote twenty five joint publications. In 1938, the couple worked with chemist Richard Kuhn (1900–1967) in Heidelberg on the study of astaxanthin which resulted in a joint publication in ''Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft'' in 1939. During the Second World War, Sørensen was arrested by Nazi German occupying forces in 1943 and was imprisoned for two years. Sørensen was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. He was an honorary member of Norsk Kjemisk Selskab, and received the Nansen medal for Outstanding Research. Sørensen was decorated Knight, First Class of the

Order of St. Olav The Royal Norwegian Order of Saint Olav ( no, Den Kongelige Norske Sankt Olavs Orden; or ''Sanct Olafs Orden'', the old Norwegian name) is a Norwegian order of chivalry instituted by King Oscar I on 21 August 1847. It is named after King Olav II ...

in 1965. A sculpture of Sørensen by Johannes Block Hellum is located at the

Norwegian University of Science and Technology 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 ...

References

1909 births 1987 deaths Scientists from Oslo Norwegian chemists Norwegian Institute of Technology alumni Norwegian Army personnel of World War II Norwegian resistance members Falstad concentration camp survivors Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Members of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences {{norway-academic-bio-stub Order of Saint Olav