Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

392 results found

Dam, Henrik

(Encyclopedia)Dam, Henrik hănˈrēk däm [key], 1895–1976, Danish biochemist. He identified vitamin K in 1934 and later investigated the role of vitamin E in nutrition. The 1943 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medi...

dam

(Encyclopedia)dam, barrier, commonly across a watercourse, to hold back water, often forming a reservoir or lake; dams are also sometimes used to control or contain rockslides, mudflows, and the like in regions whe...

Ibsen, Henrik

(Encyclopedia)Ibsen, Henrik hĕnˈrĭk ĭbˈsən [key], 1828–1906, Norwegian dramatist and poet. His early years were lonely and miserable. Distressed by the consequences of his family's financial ruin and on his...

Harpestreng, Henrik

(Encyclopedia)Harpestreng, Henrik, or Henricus Dacus, d. 1244, Danish herbalist and medical writer. He probably studied at the medical school in Salerno, and was a canon at Roskilde Cathedral, then Denmark's eccles...

Pontoppidan, Henrik

(Encyclopedia)Pontoppidan, Henrik hănˈrēk pôntôˈpĭdän [key], 1857–1943, Danish novelist. He shared the 1917 Nobel Prize in Literature with Karl Gjellerup. Pontoppidan devoted himself to engineering, journ...

Wergeland, Henrik

(Encyclopedia)Wergeland, Henrik hĕnˈrĭk vĕrˈgəlän [key], 1808–45, Norwegian writer and patriot. A champion of liberty, democracy, and international cooperation, he worked zealously for popular education an...

Abel, Niels Henrik

(Encyclopedia)Abel, Niels Henrik nēls hĕnˈrĭk äˈbəl [key], 1802–29, Norwegian mathematician. While a student at the Univ. of Christiania (Oslo) he did fundamental work on the integration of functional expr...

Jørgensen, Anker Henrik

(Encyclopedia)Jørgensen, Anker Henrik, 1922–2016, Danish political leader, prime minister of Denmark (1972–73, 1975–82), b. Copenhagen. A trade union leader and a member of the Social Democratic party (SDP),...

Koivisto, Mauno Henrik

(Encyclopedia)Koivisto, Mauno Henrik mouˈnō hĕnˈrĭk koiˈvēstō [key], 1923–2017, Finnish politician. He was director of the Helsinki Workers' Savings Bank (1959–68) and then governor of the Bank of Finla...

Doisy, Edward Adelbert

(Encyclopedia)Doisy, Edward Adelbert doiˈzē [key], 1893–1986, American biochemist, b. Hume, Ill., grad. Univ. of Illinois (B.A., 1914), Ph.D. Harvard, 1920. For his discovery of the chemical nature of vitamin K...