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Sven Otto Pettersson (February 12, 1848 - January 16, 1941) was a Swedish chemist and ocean research pioneer. He was professor of chemistry and during a dramatic period also rector at Stockholm University. He was the inventor of primarily oceanographic instruments, but also of a submarine, a wind turbine, a life raft and more. He also put forward a number of bold hypotheses in oceanography.

Biography
Pettersson became a student in Uppsala in 1866, a doctor of philosophy in 1872 and a docent in physical chemistry in 1874 in Uppsala, was appointed in 1881 as a teacher and in 1884 as a professor of chemistry at Stockholm University, from which he resigned in 1909, when he settled at Holma near Lysekil by the Gullmarsfjord, where In 1902, together with Gustaf Ekman, he set up the Bornö hydrographic field station.

Pettersson's main works fall within the areas of physical and inorganic chemistry and hydrography. The first-mentioned department includes, among other things, Experimentelle Methoden und Untersuchungen in der physikalischen Chemie (1879) and his many investigations (conducted together with Lars Fredrik Nilson) regarding the density and other physical properties of inorganic compounds (especially chlorides of indium, gallium, iron, aluminum, chromium, beryllium and rare earths) at high temperatures (1880–89), further his determinations of the specific heat and heat of fusion of bodies (1878–80). This also includes his analytical work, especially the development of particularly accurate and generally useful methods for gas analysis (1886–92). In the transitional area between the two groups are his experiments regarding the properties of water and ice (1878–83).

In the field of hydrography, Pettersson wrote many particularly significant works, on, among other things, the gas content of springs and aqueducts (together with Klas Sondén, 1889), the waters of the Siberian Sea (1883) and the waters of the Baltic and North Seas (1892–97, partly together with Ekman). The latter researches led him to investigations regarding practical issues, such as fishing (especially the Bohuslänska herring fishery, 1892) and weather forecasts for longer periods of time (1896) and about the reasons for the earlier or later onset of the vegetation period in different years (1899). Together with Ekman, he published an account of the hydrography of the Arctic Ocean in 1896–97 (1898). Furthermore, he wrote a theoretical treatise on the influence of ice melting on the oceanic circulation (1904) and on the connection between hydrographic and meteorological phenomena (1912). Of great interest is his discovery of tidal movements in the deeper water layers (1909). He also wrote, among other things, Innere Bewegungen in den Zwischenschichten des Meeres und der Atmosphera (in Vetenskapssocietetens in Uppsala "Nova acta", 1923).

On Pettersson's initiative, the Swedish government invited to the first hydrographic international conference, in Stockholm in 1899. The still existing International Council for the Exploration of the Sea ICES was added on Pettersson's initiative in 1902. He was also the leading man in the hydrographic commission (1892–1900) and in the hydrographic-biological commission (from 1901).

Most of Pettersson's works were printed in the publications of the Vetenskapsakademien, Lantbruksakademien and Vetenskapssocieteten in Uppsala, in "Journal für praktische Chemie", "Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft", "Zeitschrift für analytische Chemie", "Meteorologische Zeitschrift", "Hygiea", "Geographical Journal", "Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society", "Publications de circonstance" (Copenhagen) and "Scientific observations of the Vega expedition". He became a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1889, of the Agricultural Academy in 1894 (honorary member in 1911), of the Science and Knowledge Society in Gothenburg in 1898 (honorary member in 1908) and of the Science Society in Uppsala in 1904. On his 75th birthday (1923), a celebratory letter was dedicated to him.

Family
Otto Pettersson was the son of the wholesaler Johan Fredrik Pettersson and his wife Emilie, née Borgman. He married in 1875 Agnes Irgens (1851-1928), daughter of the Norwegian Major General and Minister of State Nils Christian Irgens and his wife Louise Fredrikke, née Linaae. Otto Pettersson was the brother of the governor Fredrik Pettersson and the father of Hans Pettersson, Sweden's first professor of oceanography. Otto Pettersson is buried at Östra kyrgygården in Gothenburg.