Abstract
AN unusually wide circle among men of science, including mathematicians, astronomers and geodesists, will approve and appreciate the election of Prof. N. E. Norlund to the foreign membership of the Royal Society, Prof. Norlund has since 1923 been the director of the Danish Geodetic Institute, an office always previously held (as in the case of the OrdnanceSurvey in Great Britain) by a military officer. In recent years, he has undertaken a new first-order triangulation of Denmark, and in Greenland also he has instituted a new triangulation which will extend up to 76° N.—a most valuable contribution to the determination of the figure of theearth. In mathematics, his works include memoirs on the theory of difference equations in the complex domain; on divergent series; and on continued fractions. In astronomy, at the University Observatory of Copenhagen, he has worked especially on the errors which affect the meridian observations of fixed stars, and has also made an important study of the double star ξ Ursæ Major is, concluding from a very slight perturbation inits orbital motions that it is a triple star, the observable pair havingan invisible satellite. Prof. Norlund has held many distinguished offices in his own country, and has played a prominent part in the international organization of science ; he has presided over the Baltic Geodetic Commission, the International Time Commission, and the International Council of Scientific Unions. He is a foreign member of the Academies of Science in Paris, Rome (Lincei) and Stockholm, and an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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Prof. N. E. Nφrland, For. Mem. R.S. Nature 141, 963 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141963b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141963b0