Aslaug Sverdrup Sømme

Aslaug Sverdrup Sømme (1891-1955) was a Norwegian plant scientist and geneticist.

In 1910 Sømme enrolled at the Univeritetets Institut for Arvelighetsforskning in Kristiania, Norway, where she studied zoology, specifically plankton. She graduated in 1918 and by 1919 was appointed as an 'Ammanuensis', becoming only the second women ever to hold a scientific position at the university

Upon hearing of the growing work being done by William Bateson on genetics at the John Innes Horticultural Institute in the UK, Sømme wrote to Bateson requesting to join him working on Primula sinensis, crossing the North Sea in 1921, initially as a volunteer. Sømme remained in England until 1926 at which point she returned to Norway to take up the position of 'Lecturer in Genetics' at the University of Oslo.