Erling Sverdrup

Who was Erling Sverdrup?

Erling Sverdrup was a Norwegian statistician and actuarial mathematician. He played an instrumental role in building up and modernising the fields of mathematical statistics and actuarial science in Norway, primarily at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Oslo but also via his links to Statistics Norway.

During the second world war Sverdrup was involved with the cryptography part of the war efforts, specifically also with organising and recruiting other mathematicians to the Norwegian cryptography branch, spending part of this time in London. He completed his acturial exams autumn 1945. He then became scientific assistant at the Insurance Mathematical Seminar at the University Oslo in 1948, where the education of actuararies was organised, after which he spent stipend years in the USA and completed his PhD there in 1952. In 1953 he was made a professor of insurance mathematics and mathematical statistics at the University of Oslo, a position he held until his retirement.

In 1954, Sverdrup became an elected member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.