Jon Bremer

Jon Bremer (5 December 1928 – 12 November 2005) was a Norwegian biochemist.

He was born in Ås as a son of agronomy professor Anders Hillegaard Bremer, and a nephew of psychiatrist Johan Bremer.^[1] Jon Bremer finished his secondary education at Eidsvoll Landsgymnas in 1948^[2] and graduated with the cand.med. degree from the University of Oslo in 1956. Already in 1957 he followed with the dr.med. degree with a thesis on bile acid metabolism,^[1] titled Ein in vitro-studie over konjugeringa av frie gallesyrer med taurin og glycin.^[3] He actually wrote the doctoral thesis before finishing his graduate studies, spurred by a collaboration with Lorentz Eldjarn.^[4]

He was a research fellow for the National Association Against Cancer from 1960, docent in clinical biochemistry at the University of Oslo from 1966 and professor from 1972.^[1] He was inducted into the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in 1981.^[5] In 1985 he received the Anders Jahre Medical Prize [no]^[4] and the Fridtjof Nansen Prize for Outstanding Research in 1991.^[6] Among others, he did research on lecithin and carnitine. He was an active researcher until his sudden death in November 2005, aged 77.^[2]

Bremer was the first physician to write his doctoral thesis in Norwegian Nynorsk.^[4] He was a board member of Noregs Mållag from 1961 to 1965.^[1] He also presided over a fund that raised money for Nynorsk print media.^[7]