Thorild Wulff (born 1 April 1877 in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

; died late August or early September 1917 in Northwest

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

polar explorer This list is for recognised pioneering explorers of the polar regions. It does not include subsequent travelers and expeditions. Polar explorers * Jameson Adams * Mark Agnew * Stian Aker * Valerian Albanov * Roald Amundsen * Salomon August ...

Career

He obtained his

doctorate degree A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

from

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

in 1902 based on observation he had made during a

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

geodesy Geodesy or geodetics is the science of measuring and representing the Figure of the Earth, geometry, Gravity of Earth, gravity, and Earth's rotation, spatial orientation of the Earth in Relative change, temporally varying Three-dimensional spac ...

expedition to

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...

. Contains four parts: I. Über die Transpiration der arktischen Gewächse; II. Über das Auftreten von Antocyan bei den arktischen Gewächsen; III. Der Polygonboden ( Kjellman's "Rutmark"); IV. Floristische Notizen Wulff was research assistant in horticulture ("Centralanstalten för försöksväsendet på jordbruksområdet") 1905–09,

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 ...

of botany at

Stockholm University College Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

1909–13. In 1911 he travelled to

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

with his friend the author

Albert Engström Albert Engström (1869–1940) was a Swedish artist, author and member of the Swedish Academy from 1922.:sv:Albert Engström, Albert Engström. ''sv.wikipedia.org''. Retrieved: 27 June 2013. Career Engström was born in Lönneberga, Kalmar Cou ...

who gave an account of the journey ("Åt Häcklefjäll" 1913). He participated in the Second Thule Expedition led by

Knud Rasmussen Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen (; 7 June 1879 – 21 December 1933) was a Greenlandic-Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the "father of Eskimology" (now often known as Inuit Studies or Greenlandic and Arctic Studies) ...

from

Thule Thule ( ; also spelled as ''Thylē'') is the most northerly location mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature and cartography. First written of by the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia (modern-day Marseille, France) in about 320 BC, i ...

Cape Bridgman Cape Bridgman () is a headland in the Wandel Sea, Arctic Ocean, northeast Greenland. The cape was named by Robert Peary after Herbert L. Bridgman, one of the members of the Peary Arctic Club in New York. The northernmost human remains of the I ...

in the northeastern corner of

Peary Land Peary Land is a peninsula in northern Greenland, extending into the Arctic Ocean. It reaches from Victoria Fjord in the west to Independence Fjord in the south and southeast, and to the Arctic Ocean in the north, with Cape Morris Jesup, the nor ...

. On the return trip, the expedition suffered from bad weather and insufficient supplies, resulting in casualties, one of them being Wulff. He died from fatigue near

Cape Agassiz The Hollick-Kenyon Peninsula() is an ice-covered spur from the main mountain mass of the Antarctic Peninsula. It projects over in a northeasterly arc from its base between Mobiloil Inlet and Casey Inlet. Location The Hollick-Kenyon Peninsul ...

off the

Humboldt Glacier Humboldt Glacier () is one of the major glaciers in northern Greenland. The glacier is named after German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and is the widest tidewater glacier in the Northern Hemisphere. Geography The Humboldt Glacier borders ...

Honours

The Greenlandic plant species ''

Braya thorild-wulffii ''Braya thorild-wulffii'', the Greenland northern rockcress, is a plant species native to Greenland, Nunavut the Canadian Northwest Territories, and from the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of eastern Russia. ''Braya thorild-wulffii'' is an herb up to ...

'' (

Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older but equally valid) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important Family (biology), family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous pla ...

) was named after him in 1923. The

Wulff Land Wulff Land () is a peninsula in far northwestern Greenland. Administratively it is a part of the Northeast Greenland National Park. History Wulff Land was named after Swedish botanist and Arctic explorer Thorild Wulff (1867–1917), who went with ...

peninsula in Northern Greenland is similarly named for him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wulff, Thorild 20th-century Swedish botanists Swedish polar explorers 1877 births 1917 deaths Explorers of the Arctic Academic staff of Stockholm University Lund University alumni