TITLE: Selberg's advisor?
QUESTION [11 upvotes]: Does anybody know who was Atle Selberg's advisor?
I find it interesting to know the advisor's impact on his students.
Unfortunately, in Selberg case, this information (even his advisor's name) seems to be nowhere to be found.

REPLY [26 votes]: I'm a student at the university of Oslo, so I thought I'd have a go at this. I just talked to Erling Størmer (Carl's grandson) who is a professor emeritus here. He said that in practice Atle had no advisor. Of course someone must have signed the papers but he doesn't know who (I don't really see what difference it makes anyway). Erling told me that according to Atle the reason why so many Norwegian mathematicians at the time worked in number theory is that they were all self-taught, and number theory is more accessible to the autodidact.