Jane Mink Rossen, born 1932, holds university degrees in anthropology (Goddard College, Vermont) and botany (Columbia University, New York). In 1964 she began to work as a Research Fellow at the Danish Folklore Archives and was inspired by Dr. Samuel H. Elbert and Dr. Torben Monberg to undertake field work on Bellona Island in 1974 and 1977. She earned her doctorate in ethnomusicology at the University of Copenhagen in 1987. Jane Mink Rossen investigated the Bellonese musical repertoire because of the intriguing variety contained within a limited number of named musical genres. She succeeded in recording a large number of Bellonese songs and song-dances related to different social and ritual activities. She documented that poetic composition and sung poetry are the basis of the music in the Bellonese tradition. By presenting the data in the vernacular and in an English translation, she has made a great contribution to preserve a unique song and dance tradition from extinction. Dr. Rossen is the author of a two volume monograph, Songs of Bellona Island : na taungua o Mungiki (Copenhagen, 1987) as well as of many articles in scientific journals. Until 1992 she served as an Assistant professor and Research Fellow in Musicology at the University of Copenhagen.