Hartvig Caspar Christie (physicist)

Hartvig Caspar Christie (1 December 1826 – 3 March 1873) was a Norwegian mineralogist and physicist.

He was born in Trondhjem as a son of naval commander Hartvig Caspar Christie (1788–1869) and Martha Sophia Sylow. He was a grandnephew of Werner Hosewinckel Christie, a nephew of Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie and Edvard Eilert Christie and a first cousin of Hans Langsted Christie, Christian Christie and Johan Koren Christie.

In January 1859 in Christiania he married Margaretha Sophie Bonnevie (1831–1913). The couple had eight children, and they were grandparents of politician Hartvig Caspar Christie. Through his wife, Christie was a brother-in-law of politician Jacob Aall Bonnevie, a son-in-law of politician Honoratus Bonnevie and an uncle of professor Kristine Bonnevie, judge Thomas Bonnevie and politician Carl Emil Christian Bonnevie.

He finished secondary school at Trondheim Cathedral School in 1844, and took the cand.miner. degree in 1848. He worked at Kongsberg Silver Mines from 1849 to 1851, and was hired at the Royal Frederick University in 1851. After a hiatus in the second half of the 1850s, he was hired as a lecturer in 1859. He succeeded Lorentz Christian Langberg, who died in 1857, and was hired in competition with Adam Arndtsen. He also became a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He was a professor at the Royal Frederick University from 1866 to his death. He also held lectures in physics, geognosy and mineralogy at the Norwegian Military College, and helped establish Kristiania Technical School (today a part of Oslo University College).