Olav Heggstad

Olav Heggstad (March 5, 1877 – May 2, 1954) was a Norwegian civil engineer and professor at the Norwegian Institute of Technology.

Heggstad was born in Namsos, the son of the professor Marius Hægstad and Pernele Larsdotter Midgaard (1852–1935). Heggstad passed his engineering exams at the Trondheim Technical School in 1896. After a few years of employment at the Canal Authority (, the forerunner of today's Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate) from 1897 to 1902 as well as the Holmenkollen Line, he studied further at the Dresden University of Technology from 1899 to 1900 to learn more about hydropower and electrical engineering. After practical experience at Siemens & Halske in Germany, he returned to Norway to participate in developing the Kykkelsrud power plant. Later he was employed by Norsk Hydro in the first phase of construction of power stations to provide electricity to the company's factories at Rjukan.

He was a professor of hydraulic engineering at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, where he served as the institute's rector from 1929 to 1932 and from 1942 to 1945. Heggstad also had organizational skills and served as chancellor of the Norwegian Institute of Technology from 1929 to 1933.

The difficult economic times of the Great Depression in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s corresponded to Heggstad's term as chancellor, and at his inauguration he predicted that "difficulties will come and persist for many years yet." He therefore believed that the institute needed to actively engage in applied research and development for the benefit of Norway's industry, and he also stated that Norway must assert itself "in the economic war that is now being carried out among countries around the world." Heggstad was the leading specialist with technical responsibility for the national plan. He set up a very generous budget for the national plan and, among other things, engaged 44 engineers to assist him. The commission estimated that it would need 500,000 kroner for its first term, whereas the parliament's original grant was only for 50,000 kroner. These large ambitions were not understood by all, but in the end the parliament unanimously granted the amount requested.

Selected works Vassbygg. I (Hydraulic Engineering I, 1924–1927) Vassbygning (Hydraulic Engineering, 1926–1930) Vassbygging (Hydraulic Engineering, 1926–1945)