Zoology and Greenland
Nansen earned his zoology doctorate in 1888 and led a six-person crossing of Greenland’s ice sheet from east to west that year. The expedition combined skiing with scientific observations of the interior ice environment.
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A drifting laboratory
From 1893 to 1896, Fram drifted with Arctic sea ice while supporting oceanographic, meteorological and biological observations. Nansen left the vessel on a northern journey but did not reach the North Pole. Expedition observations became scientific reports, and he continued ocean research, becoming an oceanography professor in 1908.
Prisoners, refugees and documents
After the First World War he worked through the League of Nations on prisoner repatriation, famine relief and refugee resettlement. Nansen passports supplied internationally recognised identification and travel arrangements for refugees without their original state’s protection, central to the work honoured by his 1922 Peace Prize.