Harald

Biography

When Krogh and Hagedorn began to manufacture insulin at Nordisk in 1923, they agreed that Harald Pedersen was the right man to build the machines they needed for insulin production. Harald Pedersen, who originally was a smith and later became a machinist, was an unusually talented inventor. He had, after an accident at work in which he lost an eye, worked for Krogh for a number of years as manager of the mechanical workshop at the Zoophysiology Laboratory. Harald’s brother, Thorvald Pedersen, was a pharmacist who had been working at the Danish company Dansk Soyakagefabrik when he was hired by Nordisk in the autumn of 1923 to analyse the chemical processes involved in insulin production. The two brothers’ work for Nordisk did not last very long, however. Thorvald Pedersen did not get on with Hagedorn, and in April 1924 things came to a head and Hagedorn fired him. Out of loyalty to his brother, Harald Pedersen decided to hand in his notice to Krogh, even though he enjoyed working for him.

Research Interest

research scientist