Gunvor Brinck-Lindroth was an internationally recognised specialist on fleas who, despite her lack of academic merits, contributed important knowledge to that field of research.
Gunvor Brinck-Lindroth was born in 1925 in Lund, the youngest child of four. Their parents were Ida Persson, née Johansson and Henning Persson, a metal craftsman.
During the1930s and 1940s, she was active at the Department of Zoology at Lund University. At the Department, Nils A. Kemner was the professor of entomology. Gunvor Brinck-Lindroth travelled to post-war Europe with Per Brinck, her husband at that time, and they visited among other places a Germany that was still occupied by the victorious Allied troops. She participated in the Swedish South Africa expedition during the early 1950s, when she nearly lost her hand after being bitten by a baboon. The expedition’s collecting efforts resulted in 15 volumes of South African animal life: results of the Lund university expedition in 1950–1951, a fundamental work on this subject. Gunvor Brinck-Lindroth experienced the expansion of the Swedish universities during the 1950s and 1960s. She collaborated with Professor Carl Lindroth, who initiated the “open-door politics” which Gunvor Brinck-Lindroth loved to quote. His brother Sten Lindroth, professor of the history of ideas and member of the Swedish Academy became Gunvor Brinck-Lindroth’s second husband.
Back in Lund, Gunvor Brinck-Lindroth discovered her own field of research: the systematics and above all taxonomy of the insect order Siphonaptera. She cooperated with the international elite in this field: G.P. Holland from the USA, R.L.C. Pilgrim from New Zealand, J.C. Beaucournu from France, Miriam Rothschild and not least Frans G.A.M. Smit from England. Gunvor Brinck-Lindroth was very thorough in her work. One of her most important contributions was the publication of her major book on North European Siphonaptera. The book was in her name alone since her co-author, F.G.A.M. Smit had been dead for many years when it appeared in 2007.
Gunvor Brinck-Lindroth died in 2013. She is buried in the family grave in the Northern Cemetery in Lund.
