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 Sven Skjenneberg 14th Dec 1923 – 4th Jan 2009
The former secretary of NOR and editor of Rangifer, Sven Skjenneberg died at Aker University Hospital, Oslo, in January this year. His death has not been known to us before now. At his death, a part of North-Norway’s veterinary history is gone, as is also much of the history of international and Nordic reindeer research cooperation.
Sven’s merits in research from the mid-fifties and as secretary general of NOR until his retirement in 1994 are well known through the compliments he got when he was granted the degree of Veterinary Medical Doctor Honoris Causa at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden in 1993 and at the Norwegian College of Veterinary Medicine, Oslo in 1996, and when he was celebrated on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 2003.
We will remember Sven as an upright and objective person who got trust in his continuous work to advance and disseminate knowledge about reindeer and caribou. His long international relations, and especially his work for Nordic cooperation in reindeer research, gave him friends everywhere in the reindeer world.
We will stress the importance of Sven in creating a Nordic interdependence in reindeer research through his position an executive leader (although modestly entitled secretary) of the Nordic Council of Reindeer Research (NOR). The office gave him the task to develop a journal to give reindeer researchers expedite publication possibilities and create a link between the researchers and the advisers of the reindeer industry – to the best of reindeer husbandry. This goal is still a leading instruction for Rangifer.
He was very engaged with getting reindeer and caribou researchers to publish in the journal, to have them contributing to reindeer science and to the reindeer society. For researchers, the best commitment to honour Sven is advancing Rangifer an even better scientific journal.
Sven Skjenneberg spent 40 years in northern Norway where he and his wife Ragnhild had their finest memories. We thank Sven for what he meant for NOR and for research, and for being the best man he was.
Rolf Egil Haugerud Öje Danell Inge Danielsen Mauri Nieminen
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