| Bjørn Helland-Hansen | |
| Birth Date: | 16 October 1877 |
| Birth Place: | Christiania (now Oslo) |
| Death Place: | Bergen |
| Citizenship: | Norwegian |
| Nationality: | Norwegian |
| Field: | oceanography |
| Work Institutions: | Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen |
| Known For: | Atlantic Ocean "Helland-Hansen Photometer |
| Prizes: | Alexander Agassiz Medal (1933) Vega Medal (1941) |
| Children: | Eigil Helland-Hansen |
Bjørn Helland-Hansen (16 October 1877 - 7 September 1957) was a Norwegian pioneer in the field of modern oceanography. He studied the variation patterns of the weather in the northern Atlantic Ocean and of the atmosphere. [1]
He studied both medicine and physics at the University of Christiania (now University of Oslo).He developed the "Helland-Hansen Photometer" in 1910, which was carried on board Michael Sars. It was operated for the first time close to the Azores at a depth between 500 and m. In 1915 he became Professor of oceanography at the Bergen Museum, and in 1917 director of the Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen.[2] In 1933 he was awarded the Alexander Agassiz Medal. From 1946 to 1948, Helland-Hansen was President of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). He was a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and a member of the Member of the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic (DDR).
Helland-Hansen trained Alexander Kuchin, the Russian oceanographer who went to Antarctica with Roald Amundsen. An island in the Russian Arctic, east of the Geiberg Islands, has been named Gellanda-Gansena after Helland-Hansen.thumb|left|Bjørn Helland-Hansen (ca 1917)