Fridtjof Nansen

"'The history of humanity is that of a continual struggle from darkness towards light. It is, therefore, of no valuable purpose to discuss the use of knowledge; man desires knowledge, and when he ceases to do so, he is no longer man.' - Sir Fridtjof Nansen"Sir Fritdjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen D.C.L., Ph.D., Sc.D., GCVO RD RSO (10, October, 1861 - 13, May, 1930) was a Norwegian author, diplomat, humanitarian, inventor, neurologist, oceanographer, professor and zoologist. During his career, Nansen served as Minister to the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Minister to the United States of America and High Commissioner of the League of Nations' International Office for Refugees.

Nansen's office initiated the Nansen Passport Project, providing stateless refugees with passports recognized by fifty governments, repatriated over a million Greek and Turkish refugees following the Greco-Turkish War and resettled over 2.5 million refugees displaced by the Bolshevik Revolution of 1918 in Russia.

Nansen personally drafted the Integrity of Independence Treaty of 1907, securing recognition of the Kingdom of Norway's independence from the European powers, established the Central Oceanographic Laboratory of Christiania, invented the 'Nansen Bottle,' a device for sampling minerals in seawater, lead the Trans-Greenland Expedition of 1888, the first to traverse the interior of Greenland, negotiated the dissolution of the United Kingdom of Scandinavia, and signed the League of Nations' Slavery Convention of 1926.

Early Life
Fridtjof Nansen was born to Baldur Nansen, a lawyer, and his wife Adelaide (née Wedel-Jarlsberg,) at Aker, Norway on 10, October, 1861. He was the second of five children, including: Alexander, Emil, Hedvig and Fritdjof, in addition to seven half-siblings.