Johan Aschehoug Kiær was a Norwegian paleontologist and geologist

Geologist

A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

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He was born in Drammen

Drammen

Drammen is a city in Buskerud County, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the eastern and most populated part of Norway.-Location:...

 as the son of Hagbarth Kiær (1829–1903). In 1909 he was appointed professor of paleontology

Paleontology

Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...

 at the University of Oslo

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

, as the first in Norway to hold such a position. He was also head of the Palaeontological Museum of Oslo. His most important publication was Das Obersilur im Kristianiagebiete. He took part in work on Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...

. He work covered coral

Coral

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...

s, trilobite

Trilobite

Trilobites are a well-known fossil group of extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the Atdabanian stage of the Early Cambrian period , and they flourished throughout the lower Paleozoic era before...

s, and especially Devonian

Devonian

The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...

 and Silurian

Silurian

The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the...

 fishes.

He was an important inspiration for the work of Anatol Heintz

Anatol Heintz

Anatol Heintz was a Norwegian palaeontologist.He was born in Petrograd to the geophysicist Yevgeniy Alfredovich Heintz and Olga Fyodorovna Hoffmann . He had two older siblings. In 1919 the family fled to Norway...

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Johan Aschehoug Kiær was the grandson of Hans Andersen Kiær

Hans Andersen Kiær

Hans Andersen Kiær was a Norwegian businessperson and politician.He was a part of a large ship-owner family, starting with his father Anders Hansen Kiær...

 and nephew of Anders F. Kiær and Hans Theodor Kiær, all businessmen. He was a first cousin of Elias C. Kiær

Elias C. Kiær

Elias Cathrinus Kiær was a Norwegian businessperson.He was born in Drammen as the son of wholesaler Hans Theodor Kiær . He was the grandson of Hans Andersen Kiær and nephew of Anders F. Kiær....

 and Frits Kiær.