Happy birthday (on Jan. 4) to Niels Ebbesen Hansen, a horticulturist, botanist, and agricultural explorer* who spent his career with South Dakota State University and the USDA gathering grasses, fruits, and other plants from Europe and Asia and crossbreeding them with local varieties.
Hansen, who immigrated to the United States as a child with his family from Denmark, developed several hybrid crops that would survive in the difficult climate of the Upper Midwest. He was a member of the International Jury of Horticulture at the World’s Fair in St. Louis in 1904 and a United States delegate to the First International Congress of Genetics in London in 1906. His papers and a statue in his honor can be found at SDSU. (He also penned the school song “The Yellow and Blue.”)
Next time you eat a home-grown South Dakota fruit, you might need to thank ol’ Niels.
*Is “agricultural explorer” the best job title or what?
Firmly Planted in South Dakota (South Dakota Magazine)
Niels Ebbesen Hansen (Wikipedia)
Niels Ebbesen Hansen (South Dakota Historical Society)
SoDak Does Science 