He was born in Kvæfjord Municipality as a son of teacher Hans Christian Bergersen (1835–1925) and his wife Ingeborg Kristine Heitmann (1848–1938). He finished his secondary education in 1909, and was hired as a journalist in Social-Demokraten in 1910. He took a teacher's education in 1915, and after working one year as a teacher,[1] he enrolled at the Royal Frederick University to study medicine. After two years he switched to zoology, and he graduated with the cand.real. degree in 1925. His advisor for the master's degree was Kristine Bonnevie, and his thesis was translated, shortened and issues in the German journal Zeitschrift für Zellforschung und mikroskopische Anatomie in 1926. Bergersen was a board member of the Norwegian Students' Society, and worked part-time as a curator and assistant at the university and its palaeontological museum.[2]
Academic and diplomatic career
Shortly after graduating, he was hired as a docent at Norges tannlegehøgskole. He conducted further studies, mostly at the Swedish Veterinary College, and took the dr.philos. degree in 1932 with the thesis Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Haut einiger Pinnipedien. This would be the pinnacle of his academic writings.[2] He was appointed as a professor of anatomy at Norges tannlegehøgskole in the same year, and served as vice rector from 1933 to 1937.[1]
Bergersen was also an activist, from the 1930s onwards, against the unsustainable hunting of whales in the Southern Ocean. This led to the creation of the International Whaling Commission, where Bergersen was the first chairman.[2] He chaired Hvalrådet from 1936 to 1954.[1]
