Harald Ulrik Sverdrup (15 November 1888 – 21 August 1957) was a
Norwegian oceanographer and
meteorologist who made a number of important theoretical discoveries in these fields. Having first worked in
Bergen and
Leipzig he was the scientific director of the
North Polar expedition of
Roald Amundsen aboard the Maud from 1918 to 1925. His measurements of bottom depths, tidal currents, and tidal elevations on the vast shelf areas off the East Siberian Sea correctly described the propagation of tides as Poincare waves. Upon his return from this long expedition exploring the shelf seas to the north of Siberia, he became the chair in meteorology at the University of Bergen in Norway.