Emil Christian Hansen (8 May 1842 – 27 August 1909) was a Danish mycologist and fermentation physiologist.
Emil Christian Hansen | |
|---|---|
 Emil Christian Hansen | |
| Born | 8 May 1842 |
| Died | 27 August 1909 (aged 67) |
| Nationality | Danish |
| Known for | Saccharomyces carlsbergensis |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mycology |
| Institutions | Carlsberg Laboratory |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | E.C.Hansen |
Early life and education
Hansen was born in Ribe to Joseph Christian Hansen, a house-painter, and his wife Ane Catherina Dyhre.[1]
He was awarded a gold medal in 1876 for an essay on fungi, titled De danske Gjødningssvampe.[2] During his days as a university student in Copenhagen, he worked as an unpaid assistant to zoologist Japetus Steenstrup (1813–1897).
Career
In 1876, with Alfred Jørgensen (1848–1925), he published a Danish translation of Charles Darwin’s "The Voyage of the Beagle"; Rejse om Jorden. From 1879 to 1909, he was director of the physiological department at Carlsberg Laboratory.[3]
Hired by the Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen in 1879,[4] he became the first to isolate a pure cell of yeast in 1883, and after combining it with a sugary solution, produced more yeast than was in a yeast bank. It was named as Saccharomyces carlsbergensis after the laboratory, and is the yeast from which are derived, all yeasts used in lager beers.[5] See Fermentation, Yeast.
Hansen is the taxonomic authority of the fungal genus Anixiopsis (1897) from the family Onygenaceae.[6]
He was honoured in 1911, when botanist H. Zikes published Hanseniaspora, which is a genus of yeasts.[7]
Publications by Hansen that have been translated into English
- Practical studies in fermentation: being contributions to the life history of micro-organisms, 1896.
- Considerations on Technical Mycology, 1905.[8]
Literature
- Claussen, Niels Hjelte Emil Christian Hansen, pp. 161–164 in: Meisen, V. Prominent Danish Scientists through the Ages. University Library of Copenhagen 450th Anniversary. Levin & Munksgaard, Copenhagen (1932)
- Beer in Health and Disease Prevention edited by Victor R. Preedy