Biography:Nils Gabriel Sefström

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Short description: Swedish chemist
Nils Gabriel Sefström
Nils Gabriel Sefström (1787-1845) 3.png
Born(1787-06-02)2 June 1787
Ilsbo, Hälsingland, Sweden
Died30 November 1845(1845-11-30) (aged 58)
Stockholm, Sweden
NationalitySwedish
Known forRediscovery of vanadium
Scientific career
Doctoral advisorJöns Jakob Berzelius

Nils Gabriel Sefström (2 June 1787 – 30 November 1845) was a Swedish chemist. Sefström was a student of Berzelius and, when studying the brittleness of steel in 1830, he rediscovered a new chemical element, to which he gave the name vanadium.[1]

Vanadium was first discovered by the Spanish-Mexican mineralogist Andrés Manuel del Río in 1801. He named it erythronium. Friedrich Wöhler later confirmed that vanadium and erythronium were the same substance.[2]

Sefström was member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences from 1815.

The Spitzbergen glacier Sefströmbreen,[3] and the mountain ridge of Sefströmkammen, are named after him.[4]

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Further reading