Arne Tiselius, 1902 - 1971

Abstract

Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius was born in Stockholm on 10 August 1902, the son of Hans Abraham J : son Tiselius and Rosa Kaurin, a daughter of the rector of a mountain parish in the centre of Norway. Tiselius’s father had acquired his surname from his grandmother, Mrs Johansson, nee Tisell, who was descended from a family alternatively named Tisell or Tiselius. Several of her ancestors were scholarly persons with a great interest in science, especially in biology. At the end of the seventeenth century members of this family were learned clergymen interested in scientific pursuits and in the eighteenth century they were foundry proprietors and yeomen farmers. Tiselius’s father, who was employed by an insurance company in Stockholm, had taken a degree in mathematics at Uppsala University. His grandfather, Nils Abraham Johansson, and his grandfather’s brother had also taken degrees at Uppsala in mathematics and biology respectively. N. A. Johansson became ‘docent’ in mathematics at Uppsala and later moved to Gothenburg where at first he was ‘lektor’ and finally principal of a well known grammar school. After the premature death of Dr Hans Tiselius in 1906, Mrs Tiselius moved with Arne and his sister to Gothenburg where Arne’s grandparents were living and where the family had some very close friends who in various respects could support Mrs Tiselius in her difficult situation with the two small children. Arne went to the grammar school, the present Vasa Laroverk, where his grandfather had been principal. Here, Dr Ludwig Johansson, a very inspiring teacher in chemistry and biology who had been ‘docent’ in zoology at Uppsala before going to Gothenburg, discovered Tiselius’s ability in chemistry.