{{Short description|Norwegian marine and freshwater biologist}} thumb|Georg Ossian Sars, c. 1865 thumb|Drawing made by Sars in his book Contributions to the Knowledge of the Fresh-Water Entomostraca of New Zealand. (1894)
Prof '''Georg Ossian Sars''' HFRSE (20 April 1837 – 9 April 1927) was a Norwegian marine and freshwater biologist.
==Life==
Georg Ossian Sars was born on 20 April 1837 in Kinn, Norway (now part of Kinn Municipality), the son of Pastor Michael Sars and Maren Sars; the historian Ernst Sars was his elder brother, and the singer and women's skiing pioneer Eva Nansen was his younger sister.<ref name="NBL">{{cite web |url=http://www.snl.no/.nbl_biografi/G_O_Sars/utdypning |title=G. O. Sars |work=Norsk biografisk leksikon |author=Geir Hestmark |access-date=June 25, 2011 |language=no}} ([https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=no&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.snl.no%2F.nbl_biografi%2FG_O_Sars%2Futdypning Google Translate])</ref> He grew up in Manger Municipality in Hordaland, where his father was the local priest.<ref name="NBL"/> He studied from 1852 to 1854 at Bergen Cathedral School, from 1854 at Christiania Cathedral School, and joined the university at Christiana (now the University of Oslo) in 1857.<ref name="NBL"/> He indulged his interest in natural history while studying medicine; having collected water fleas in local lakes with Wilhelm Lilljeborg's works, he discovered new species, and this resulted in his first scientific publication.<ref name="NBL"/> Georg Ossian Sars had a good memory and excellent drawing skills, and illustrated some of his father's zoological works.<ref name="NBL"/>
Sars was a founding investigator of ichthyoplankton. In 1864, he was commissioned by the Norwegian government to investigate fisheries around the Norwegian coast. One of his first discoveries was that the eggs of cod are pelagic, that is, they inhabit the open water column.<ref name="NBL"/> He continued to receive the patronage of the government throughout his career.<ref>{{cite book |author=Helen M. Rozwadowski |year=2008 |title=Fathoming the Ocean: The Discovery and Exploration of the Deep Sea |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-02756-5 |chapter=Dredging the moon |pages=133–174 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_hg8o1HpgQQC&pg=PA148}}</ref> Sars' primary research focus was on crustaceans and their systematics. He described many new species in his career, including in his ''magnum opus'', ''An Account of the Crustacea of Norway''.<ref name="NBL"/>
For his achievements, Sars was made a Knight of the Order of St. Olav in 1892, and elevated to Knight-Commander in 1911.<ref name="Truesdale1993">{{cite book|author=Frank Truesdale|title=History of Carcinology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oMQTwzwQXakC&pg=PA152|date=1 June 1993|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-90-5410-137-6|pages=152}}</ref> He was further awarded the Linnean Medal in 1910.<ref name="NBL"/>
Georg Ossian Sars never married, and died on 9 April 1927 in Oslo.<ref name="NBL"/> He is remembered in the scientific names of a number of marine invertebrates, as well as the journal ''Sarsia'', the Sars International Centre for Marine Molecular Biology and the flagship of the Norwegian research fleet, the ''RV G.O.Sars''.<ref name="NBL"/>
==Publications== * ''An Account of the Crustacea of Norway''. * Sars G. O. (1878). [https://archive.org/details/bidragtilkundska00sarsgo ''Bidrag til kundskaben om norges arktiske fauna. I. Mollusca regonis arcticae Norwegiae. Oversigt over de i norges arktiske region forekommende bløddyr'']. Christiania, Brøgger. [University of Oslo].
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} {{Wikispecies}}
* [http://www.imr.no/english/about_imr/vessels/g.o._sars The RV G.O. Sars] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100418114145/http://www.imr.no/english/about_imr/vessels/g.o._sars |date=2010-04-18 }} * [http://www.sars.no/ Sars International Centre for Marine Molecular Biology] * [https://openlibrary.org/a/OL2385417A/G._O._Sars G.O. Sars Open Library] * [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/creator/1410 BHL] Online works by G. O. Sars
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sars, Georg Ossian}} Category:1837 births Category:1927 deaths Category:19th-century Norwegian zoologists Category:20th-century Norwegian zoologists Category:Fisheries scientists Category:Honorary Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Category:Marine zoologists Category:Norwegian carcinologists Category:Norwegian marine biologists Category:People educated at Oslo Cathedral School Category:People educated at the Bergen Cathedral School Category:University of Oslo alumni Category:Academic staff of the University of Oslo Category:Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala