Kristine Bonnevie

Exactly 100 years ago, Kristine Bonnevie was appointed professor of zoology and so became the first female professor in Norway. She succeeded despite the contemporary opinion, shared not least by her father, that higher education was no suitable goal for young women. Her appointment made her a pioneer and a role model for women academics.

But Kristine Bonnevie was more than a pioneer. She was also a key figure in her profession at a time when modern science took shape. She knew major scientists such as Albert Einstein and Marie Curie and was a close colleague of and collaborator with important international workers in her field. Their goal was to understand the cell nucleus, which was part of the hunt for answers to the riddles posed by heritable traits and hence the most profound secrets of life.

Inger Nordal, Dag O. Hessen and Thore Lie tell the history of Kristine Bonnevie, a woman who scaled academic barricades and, by doing so, showed the way for later generations of women academics. However, the book about her also provides insights into a significant period in Norwegian and international scientific research.