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.

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.

Nils Gabriel Sefström

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

Nils Gabriel Sefström

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

Nils Gabriel Sefström

References

Further reading

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Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon: Sefström, Nils Gabriel - in Swedish

1787 births

1845 deaths

Swedish chemists

Uppsala University alumni

Discoverers of chemical elements

Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

19th-century Swedish scientists

19th-century Swedish chemists

Vanadium