Sverdrup, Harald Ulrik [key], 1888–1957, Norwegian oceanographer and meteorologist. He was in charge of the scientific work on the Maud for Amundsen's arctic expeditions (1917–25) and on the Nautilus for Wilkins's submarine arctic expedition (1931). He was professor in Bergen at the Geophysical Institute (1926–30) and at the Christian Michelsen Institute (1931–36) and was (1936–48) professor at the Univ. of California and director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. There he helped develop methods to predict the tides and surf that were used for amphibious landings by Allied forces during World War II. In 1948 he became professor of geophysics and director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, Oslo. He wrote Oceanography for Meteorologists (1942) and The Oceans: Their Physics, Chemistry, and General Biology (with M. W. Johnson and R. H. Fleming; 1942).
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