Knut S. Heier

Knut Sigurdsøn Heier (20 April 1929 – 14 September 2008) was a Norwegian geochemist. He was a professor at the University of Oslo and the Norwegian Institute of Technology between 1968 and 1989, and was also director of the Norwegian Geological Survey. Heier also spent parts of his research abroad, and was a member of the Apollo Project.

Education He was born in Bærum Municipality as the son of an engineer. He graduated from the University of Oslo with the cand.real. degree in 1954, with a paper on tungsten. He subsequently turned down a job offer from the private sector to work on a doctoral thesis. He started with a year of field work at Bø i Vesterålen, from 1955, and then went to Oxford to conduct laboratory work. He finally took the dr.philos. degree in 1960. During his time, Norway was an emerging petroleum power. Heier helped ensure that research positions relevant to petroleum were funded. This has been considered as a necessary renewal of the focus of geology in Norway. He died in September 2008, at 79 years of age.