Harald Mogensen Thamdrup (17 May 1908 – 13 November 1998) was a Danish biologist and science organizer.[1]
Thamdrup was a professor of zoology at Aarhus University 1959-1975 – the first in that chair. He also served as a director of the Natural History Museum, Aarhus 1941-1978 and founded the research station Mols Laboratory (Molslaboratoriet) in 1941 and in 1949 theWildlife Biological Station (Vildtbiologisk Station) at Kalø which he led for 30 years. [2] [3]
Thamdrup studied natural history at the University of Copenhagen and won a gold medal for his thesis on soil dwelling oribatid mites.[4]
He obtained a dr. phil. degree in 1935 on his thesis about the intertidal fauna of the Wadden Sea.[5] Thamdrup then turned to the study of soil fauna of heathland.[6]
In 1959, he establishment the Department of Zoology at Aarhus University where he served as professor until 1975.Thamdrup was the chairman of the Danish committee under the International Biological Programme 1967-1974 and was in many other respects an organizational catalyst in Danish ecological research during the remainder of his professional life.[7]