Bernt Aardal (born 9 October 1950) is a Norwegian

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

who is among the best known practitioners of

election science Election science is a field that deals with the conduct and administration of Election, elections. It is distinct from the study of public opinion and election forecasting (which fall under political science and psephology). Election science combi ...

in Norway. Aardal took his doctorate in 1993 with a thesis on

energy policy Energy policies are the government's strategies and decisions regarding the Energy production, production, Energy distribution, distribution, and World energy supply and consumption, consumption of energy within a specific jurisdiction. Energy ...

, ''Energi og miljø. Nye stridsspørsmål i møte med gamle strukturer''. Aardal was a head researcher at the

Norwegian Institute for Social Research The Institute for Social Research (, ISF) is an independent social science research institute based in Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipalit ...

from 1994 to 2009. He doubled as an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...

at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

from 1998 before becoming full professor there from 2013. His main subject of study was

electoral behaviour Psephology (; from Greek ) is the study of elections and voting. Psephology attempts to both forecast and explain election results. The term is more common in Britain and in those English-speaking communities that rely heavily on the British st ...

. Commenting frequently on

opinion polling An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of que ...

, the newspaper ''

Morgenbladet is Norway's oldest daily newspaper, covering politics, culture and science, now a weekly news magazine primarily directed at well-educated readers. The magazine is notable for its opinion section featuring contributions exclusively from Norweg ...

'' found Aardal to be the most cited academic in Norway, regardless of discipline, in 2006. In 2020 he was selected as a fellow the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...

. He was born in

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such ...

and resides at

Bærums Verk Bærums Verk is a village in Bærum in Akershus, Norway, with a population of about 8000. It is located on both sides of the river Lomma. History Iron ore was found in the areas now known as Kirkerud and Eineåsen in Bærum in 1603 and 1604, an ...

References

1950 births Living people People from Drammen Norwegian political scientists Academic staff of the University of Oslo Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters {{Norway-scientist-stub