Fridtjof Nansen

Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen, who lived from 10 October 1861 to 13 May 1930, was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who gained prominence at different points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat and humanitarian. He led the team that made the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888 on cross-country skis, and he won international fame after his ship Fram reached a record northern latitude of 86 degrees 14 minutes during an expedition from 1893 to 1896; although he retired from exploration after returning to Norway, his techniques of polar travel and his equipment innovations influenced a generation of later Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. Trained as a zoologist, he also worked as a museum curator whose research on the nervous system of lower marine creatures helped establish what became known as the neuron doctrine. In 1905 he spoke out in favor of ending Norway's political union with Sweden and helped persuade Prince Carl of Denmark to accept the throne of the newly independent Norway, and in the final decade of his life he devoted himself to the League of Nations, serving from 1921 as its High Commissioner for Refugees. In 1922 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of people displaced by the First World War, and among his initiatives was the Nansen passport, a travel document for stateless people that was eventually recognized by more than fifty countries.