Editing Nils Gabriel Sefström (section)

==Career and discovery of vanadium==

Sefström's first teaching posts were at the Royal Military College and the [[Karolinska Institute|Royal Caroline Medico-Surgical Institute]]. In 1822 he became chief teacher of the newly founded School of Mines at [[Falun]], a position he held for sixteen years. Former students later praised his “inexhaustible energy” and strict integrity, qualities that made him widely respected—if occasionally feared.<ref name="Sjöberg 1951"/>

While at Falun he analysed [[iron ore]] from the Taberg mine in [[Småland]] and detected traces of an unknown metal. The quantity was minute and easily confused with [[chromium]], but by late 1830 he had isolated enough oxide to justify a visit to Berzelius's private laboratory in Stockholm. The two worked through the Christmas period and, early in January 1831, obtained a pure sample. Sefström proposed the name vanadium (after ''Vanadís'', a poetical name for the Norse goddess [[Freyja]]) in reference to both the element’s Scandinavian provenance and the vivid colours of its salts. Berzelius willingly credited the discovery to his former student.<ref name="Cintas 2004"/>

Sefström became a member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] in 1815 and served as its president in 1840–1841. After resigning from the Falun school in 1838 because of ill-health, he accepted a less demanding appointment in Stockholm as scientific adviser to the Board of Mines, where he supervised the mineral cabinet and laboratory of the Mining College. He suffered a stroke and died in Stockholm on 30 November 1845.<ref name="Weeks 1956"/>