Gunnar Isachsen is one of the scientific pioneers of Svalbard and the Norwegian Polar Institute. He is portrayed on one of the new stamps that were published today in Longyearbyen in connection with the 100 year anniversary of the settlement. Isachsen was the leader of the expeditions to Spitsbergen in 1906 and 1907 financed and organized by Prince Albert I of Monaco.

The expedition in 1906 haled the start of systematic Norwegian scientific investigations in Svalbard and the later establishment of the Norges Svalbard og Ishavsundersøkelser (NSIU) (Norway's Svalbard and Arctic Ocean Survey). NSIU was the predecessor of the present day Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI).

This year therefore also marks the 100-year anniversary of systematic Norwegian research in Svalbard. This was commemorated by a ceremony unveiling the bust of Gunnar Isachsen located in the NPI wing at the Svalbard Science Centre in Longyearbyen on 9th of June. His son Odd Isachsen who has been invited to this ceremony by the Norwegian Polar Institute carried out the unveiling.

Gunnarius (Gunnar) Ingvald Isachsen (1868-1939)
Norwegian officer and Arctic explorer. Topographic surveyor of the second "Fram" expedition 1898-1902. Leader of the expeditions financed and organized by Prince Albert I of Monaco, to Spitsbergen in 1906 and 1907. Leader of the Norwegian Spitsbergens Expedition 1909-1910. Norwegian government delegate Paris 1919 when the question of the sovereignty of Spitsbergen was decided in favour of Norway. Director of the Norwegian Maritime Museum in Oslo from 1923. Leader of the "Norvegia" expedition to the Antarctic 1930-31.

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