She graduated from
Elverum Teachers' College in 1942, and graduated from the
University of Oslo in 1949 where she worked with
Trygve Braarud. In 1950, she published her first paper:
Phototactic vertical migration in marine dinoflagellates. She took the
dr.philos. degree in 1968 on the thesis
An Analysis of the Phytoplankton of the Pacific Southern Ocean. The Bacillariophyceae genus
Haslea has been named after her. She is also known for revising the morphological
taxonomy of the genera
Thalassiosira,
Nitzschia and
Fragilariopsis. She was honored with a
Festschrift for her seventieth birthday, and she received the Award of Excellence from the
Phycological Society of America in 2000 and the Yasumoto Lifetime Achievement Award from the
International Society for the Study of Harmful Algae in 2003. == Selected publications ==