Eberhart Jensen (22 July 1922 – 16 January 2003) was a Norwegian astrophysicist. He was born in

Røyken Røyken is a district and village (''bygd'') and a former municipality in Buskerud in Viken County, Norway. In 2020 Røyken was merged with the municipalities of Hurum and Asker to form the new Asker Municipality (informally called "Greater As ...

as a son of farmer Edvard Jensen (1850–1930) and Berthe Marie Kristiansen (1883–1961). He finished his secondary education in 1942 and graduated from 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 ...

with the cand.real. degree in 1949. During the

occupation of Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until th ...

, after the 1943 University of Oslo fire, he was arrested together with a thousand students and sent to

Stavern Stavern is a town in Larvik Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The town is located at the mouth of the Larviksfjorden along the Skagerrak coast, about south of the town of Larvik. Historically, Stavern was a self-governing municipality ...

. In December he was shipped on to Sennheim, later

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...

. He survived until the camp was liberated. In 1948 he married Liv Linnestad. He took his Ph.D. at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 1953, and was hired as lecturer at the

in 1959 and

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

in 1961. His fields were mainly

solar physics Solar physics is the branch of astrophysics that specializes in the study of the Sun. It intersects with many disciplines of pure physics and astrophysics. Because the Sun is uniquely situated for close-range observing (other stars cannot be re ...

and

plasma physics Plasma () is a state of matter characterized by the presence of a significant portion of charged particles in any combination of ions or electrons. It is the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the universe, mostly in stars (including th ...

. From 1965 to 1992 he served as professor, and he also edited the official Norwegian

almanac An almanac (also spelled almanack and almanach) is a regularly published listing of a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasting, weather forecasts, farmers' sowing, planting dates ...

from 1966 to 1993. He was admitted into 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 ...

in 1965. He resided in

Østerås Østerås is a village in Akershus, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago ...

. He died in January 2003, aged 80.

References

1922 births 2003 deaths People from Røyken Sennheim concentration camp survivors Buchenwald concentration camp survivors University of Oslo alumni University of Chicago alumni Academic staff of the University of Oslo Norwegian astrophysicists Norwegian almanac editors Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Norwegian expatriates in the United States {{Norway-academic-bio-stub