Scandinavian Scientist Conference

The Scandinavian Scientist Conferences (Nordiske Naturforskermøde/Nordiska Naturforskarmöte a.k.a. Naturforskerselskabet/Naturforskarsällskapet or Scandinavian Association of Naturalists) was a series of meetings 1839-1936 for scientists and physicists from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, later also Finland and Iceland, in the era Scandinavism. The scientific community in Scandinavia were small and scattered, but collectively they had by the 1830s attained the critical mass for meeting at conferences. The inspiration came from Germany, where the scientists since 1822 had held conferences to improve communication in the fragmented geopolitical landscape. The creation of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1831) drew on the same source of inspiration. From the start, the Scandinavian Scientist Conferences became an outlet for important scientific results. However, towards the end of the 19th Century, uni-disciplinary conferences and scientific journals became competitors to the Scandinavian conference as vehicle for scientific communication. As the presentations given at the Scandinavian conferences increasingly were summaries of results already published elsewhere, the meetings lost their importance. The early meetings were held every second year, then every third year, and then at increasingly irregular intervals. In the 20th Century, only four Scandinavian Scientist Conferences were held, the last in Helsinki 1936.

The banquet at the 1847 meeting, held in Roskilde. The president of the meeting H. C. Ørsted is speaking. Christopher Hansteen, who presided the 1844 meeting in Oslo, is standing right in front of the speaker. Half-way standing to the left is Japetus Steenstrup. Wall painting by Erik Henningsen in the aula of the University of Copenhagen.

No.	Year	Venue	No.of participants	Title of printed proceedings	Notable participants
1.	1839	Gothenburg  Sweden	92	Förhandlingar vid det af skandinaviska naturforskare och läkare hållna möte i Götheborg år 1839. Götheborg, 1840; 188 pp.
2.	1840	Copenhagen  Denmark	303	Forhandlinger ved de skandinaviske naturforskeres andet möde, der holdtes i Kjöbenhavn fra den 3die til den 9de juli 1840. Kjöbenhavn, J. Jørgensen & Co, 1841; 424 pp.
3.	1842	Stockholm  Sweden	436
4.	1844	Oslo  Norway	176	Forhandlinger ved de skandinaviske naturforskeres fjerde möde i Christiania den 11-18 juli 1844. Christiania, 1847; 434 pp.	H.C. Ørsted [1]
5.	1847	Copenhagen  Denmark[2]	472	Forhandlinger ved de skandinaviske naturforskeres femte møde, der holdtes i Kiøbenhavn fra den 12te til den 17de juli 1847. Kiøbenhavn, Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1849; 989 pp.	Anders Retzius H.C. Ørsted Elias Fries Japetus Steenstrup
6.	1851	Stockholm  Sweden	362
7.	1856	Oslo  Norway	246	Forhandlinger ved de skandinaviske naturforskeres syvende möde i Christiania den 12-18 juli 1856. Christiania, Werner, 1857; 658 + 34 pp.	Japetus Steenstrup
8.	1860	Copenhagen  Denmark	451	Forhandlinger ved de skandinaviske naturforskeres ottende møde, i Kiøbenhavn fra den 8de til den 14de juli 1860. Kiøbenhavn, Den Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1861; 908 pp.
9.	1863	Stockholm  Sweden	713
10.	1868	Oslo  Norway	368		Eugen Warming S.M. Jørgensen
11.	1873	Copenhagen  Denmark	418	Forhandlinger ved de skandinaviske naturforskeres 11te møde i Kjøbenhavn fra den 3die til den 9de juli 1873. Kjøbenhavn, Schultz, 1874; 725 pp.	Eugen Warming Jacob Georg Agardh
12.	1880	Stockholm  Sweden	734	Förhandlingar vid de Skandinaviska Naturforskarnes Tolfte Möte i Stockholm från den 7:e till den 14:de Juli 1880. Stockholm, 1883.	Eugen Warming
13.	1886	Oslo  Norway	450	Forhandlinger ved de skandinaviske naturforskeres trettende möde i Christiania 7. - 12. juli 1886. Christiania, Grøndahl, 1887; 194 pp.
14.	1892	Copenhagen  Denmark	563	Beretningen om Forhandlingerne ved de skandinaviske naturforskeres 14. møde i Kjøbenhavn den 4-9. juli 1892. Kjøbenhavn, Ursins eftf., 1892; 683 pp.	Eugen Warming
15.	1898	Stockholm  Sweden	585	Förhandlingar vid det 15de Skandinaviska naturforskaremötet i Stockholm den 7-12 juli 1898. Stockholm, Skandinaviska naturforskaremöten, 1899; 415 pp.	Eugen Warming
16.	1916	Oslo  Norway	503	Forhandlinger ved de Skandinaviske naturforskeres 16. møte i Kristiania den 10.-15. juli 1916. Kristiania, 1918	J.N.F. Wille (chair) Eugen Warming Niels Bjerrum Lennart von Post Kaj Birket-Smith Johannes Brøndsted Johannes Fibiger Knud Jessen Wilhelm Johannsen Carl Wesenberg-Lund Astrid Cleve G.E. Du Rietz Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen Thekla Resvoll Svante Arrhenius Otto Nordenskiöld
17.	1923	Gothenburg  Sweden		Förhandlingar vid det 17de Skandinaviska naturforskaremötet i Göteborg den 9-14 juli 1923. Göteborg, Wettergren & Kerber, 1925; 339 pp.
18.	1929	Copenhagen  Denmark		Beretning om det 18. Skandinaviske Naturforskermøde i København 26.-31. August 1929". Frederiksberg Bogtrykkeri, København; 551 s.	Lars Onsager Harald Sverdrup
19.	1936	Helsinki  Finland		Pohjoismainen (19. skandinaavinen) luonnontutkijain kokous, Helsingissä elokuun 11-15 pnä 1936 = Nordiska (19. skandinaviska) naturforskarmötet i Helsingfors den 11-15 augusti 1936. Helsinki, Skandinaviska naturforskaremöten, 1936; 570 pp.	Niels Bohr Anton F. Bruun Jens Clausen Magnus Degerbøl Knut Fægri Paul Gelting Thorvald Sørensen Ragnar Spärck

Notes

1. H.C. Andersen wrote lyrics for a song celebrating the event, Oresundstid.dk
2. The venue was the new main building of the University of Copenhagen

References

Eriksson, Nils (1991) "I andans kraft, på sannings stråt": De skandinaviska naturforskarmötena 1839-1936. Gothenburg studies in the history of science and ideas 12, 512 pp. ISBN 91-7346-233-0