Astrid Cleve
Astrid Cleve von Euler | |
---|---|
Born | Astrid Maria Cleve 22 January 1875 |
Died | 8 April 1968 Västerås, Sweden | (aged 93)
Citizenship | Swedish |
Alma mater | Uppsala University |
Known for | Comprehensive studies of Scandinavian diatoms |
Spouse | |
Children | 5 (including Ulf von Euler) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | botany, chemistry, and geology |
Institutions | Stockholm University, Uddeholm Company, Skoghallsverkens laboratory, Uppsala University |
Thesis | Studier öfver några svenska växters groningstid och förstärkningstadium (1898) |
Author abbrev. (botany) | A.Cleve |
Astrid Maria Cleve von Euler (22 January 1875 – 8 April 1968) was a
Life
Astrid Maria Cleve was born into academic life on 22 January 1875, in
Scientific career
Chemistry and early diatom studies
Cleve's early research, in 1895 and 1896, included studies of
Quaternary geology and later diatoms studies
Around this time, in the later 1920s and through the 1960s, Cleve's research refocused again on both living and fossil diatoms in the Baltic Sea. Her research also extended into related paleobotanical issues, including the changes in water level of the Baltic Sea, then an inland sea, in the late Ice Age and the period shortly after.[7] Cleve performed boundary analyses derived from diatom studies to determine the changes in the Baltic's connection with the ocean; these are considered to have dubious validity because of the possibility of redeposited diatoms in the sediment.[8] In her discourse with the contemporary Scandinavian scientific establishment, Cleve found conflict as a proponent of the oscillation theory.[8] This theory was first proposed by N.O. Holst in 1899 and was then recycled by Ernst Antevs in 1921. When Cleve refashioned the theory in a 1923 publication it was again rejected by established geologists. The theory held that Fennoscandia's surface had oscillated up and down like a pendulum losing momentum after the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet melted. Her insistence on the validity of the theory at the Geological Society of Stockholm extended about a year until she was expelled from it.[12] In 1927 and 1928 she was involved in controversy through opinion pieces in newspapers with geologist Henrik Munthe. Munthe had proposed to declare "Svea River" at Degerfors a national monument. Cleve argued that "Svea River" should be made a national monument but that it was not the outlet of the ancient Ancylus Lake as Munthe and von Post claimed.[12] The controversy turned personal when as Munthe defended his geological interpretation in the newspapers she responded by accusing him of having unscientific reasons to advance his idea of what Svea River was.[12]
During the 1932–1955 period she published several monographs on diatom taxonomy. The first, in 1932, covered 535 extant and fossil diatom species—including 184 species unknown in Sweden—found in the
Between 1951 and 1955, Astrid Cleve von Euler published her major life work, Die Diatomeen von Schweden und Finnland, spanning across five volumes. As most of her writings, she did so in German. She was awarded an honorary professorship in biology for her diatom studies in 1955.[9] Cleve continued to publish scientific papers until the age of 86.[6]
Controversy
A street named after her in the proximity of the Karolinska University Hospital has been reconsidered for a name change after recent revelations of her lifelong sympathies toward nazism.[13]
References
- Citations
- ^ "Astrid Maria Cleve". geni_family_tree. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
- ^ "Per Teodor Cleve". geni_family_tree. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
- ^ "Carolina Alma Cleve". geni_family_tree. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
- ^ Creese & Creese 2004, p. 2.
- ^ a b c Creese & Creese 2004, p. 3.
- ^ a b c d e f g Ogilvie & Harvey 2000, p. 272.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Creese & Creese 2004, p. 4.
- ^ a b c d Creese & Creese 2004, p. 5.
- ^ a b Creese & Creese 2004, p. 6.
- ^ Creese & Creese 2004, p. 24.
- ^ Espmark, Kristina; Nordlund, Christer (2019). "Astrid Cleve Von Euler on Ytterbium and Selenium". In Lykknes, Annette; Van Tiggelen, Brigitte (eds.). Women in Their Element: Selected Women's Contributions To The Periodic System. Singapore: World Scientific.
- ^ a b c Espmark, Kristina (2006). "A scientific outsider: Astrid Cleve von Euler and her passion for research" (PDF). In Kokowski, M. (ed.). The Global and the Local: The History of Science and the Cultural Integration of Europe. 2nd ICESHS. Cracow, Poland.
- ^ "Gata uppkallad efter nazist vid Karolinska". 2018-11-16.
- References
- Creese, Mary R.; Creese, Thomas M. (2004), Ladies in the Laboratory II: Western European Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research, Scarecrow Press, Inc., ISBN 9780810849792
- Espmark, Kristina (2005), "Vetenskapskvinna utanför ramarna: Astrid Cleve von Euler och viljan att forska.", Stella Arbetsrapporter (in Swedish), 28, Uppsala: 1650–2272
- Florin, Maj-Britt (1968), "Astrid Cleve von Euler. 22 January - 8 April 1968", Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift, 62 (4): 549–564
- ISBN 0-415-92040-X
Selected scientific works
- On recent freshwater diatoms from Lule Lappmark in Sweden (1895)
- Studier öfver några svenska växters groningstid och förstärkningsstadium (1898) Dissertation
- Bidrag till kännedomen om ytterbium (1901)
- Cyclotella bodanica i Ancylussjön: Skattmansöprofilen ännu en gång (1911)
- Försök till analys av Nordens senkvartära nivåförändringar (1923), Geologiska Föreningen i Stockholm Förhandlingar
- The diatoms of Finnish Lapland (1934)
- Sundets plankton: sammansättning och fördelning (1937)
- Bacillariaceen-assoziationen im nördlichsten Finnland (1939)
- Natur und Alter der Strandflächen Finnlands: Eine spätquartäre Rekonstruktion (1943)
- Die diatomeen von Schweden und Finnland I-V (1951-1955)
- Was war der Svea älv? (1957)