Gunnar Henningsmoen (17 September 1919 – 23 April 1996) was a Norwegian

palaeontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

. He was born in

Kristiania Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022, an ...

, as a son of the Colonel Nils H. Henningsmoen. In 1962 he married Kari Egede Larssen. He became a student in 1939 and graduated with the cand. real. degree 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 ...

in 1946. During the Second World War he had spent some time in exile in Sweden, after the University of Oslo was closed. He was hired as a curator at the Palaeontological Museum in 1948 and promoted to head curator in 1956. He took the

dr.philos. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degree in 1957 with the thesis ''The trilobite family Olenidae''. He was the secretary-general of the

International Commission on Stratigraphy The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), sometimes unofficially referred to as the International Stratigraphic Commission, is a daughter or major subcommittee grade scientific organization that concerns itself with stratigraphy, strati ...

from 1960 to 1965, a visiting professor at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

from 1966 to 1967 and a professor at the University of Oslo from 1967. In addition to his academic publications, he is known for the popular release ''Trilobitter'' in 1977. He was a member of 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 ...

from 1965. He was a board member of the

Norwegian Geological Survey Geological Survey of Norway (), abbreviation: ''NGU'', is a Norwegian government agency responsible for geologic mapping and research. The agency is located in Trondheim with an office in Tromsø, with about 200 employees. It is subordinate to ...

from 1947 to 1952, and edited the journal ''Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift'' in 1966, 1968, 1969 and 1970. He died in April 1996.

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* 1919 births 1996 deaths Scientists from Oslo Norwegian paleontologists University of Oslo alumni Academic staff of the University of Oslo Norwegian expatriates in Sweden Norwegian expatriates in the United States Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters {{Norway-academic-bio-stub