Editing Nils Gabriel Sefström

{{Short description|Swedish chemist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox scientist  
| name              = Nils Gabriel Sefström
| image             = Nils Gabriel Sefström (1787-1845) 3.png
| image_size        = 
| caption           = 
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=yes|1787|6|2}}
| birth_place       = [[Ilsbo]], [[Hälsingland]], [[Sweden]]
| nationality       = [[Sweden|Swedish]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=yes|1845|11|30|1787|6|2}} 
| death_place       = [[Stockholm]], [[Sweden]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Jöns Jakob Berzelius]]
| known_for          = Rediscovery of [[vanadium]]
}}

'''Nils Gabriel Sefström''' (2 June 1787 – 30 November 1845) was a [[Sweden|Swedish]] chemist and metallurgist. A protégé of [[Jöns Jakob Berzelius]], he rediscovered the element [[vanadium]] in 1830 while investigating the brittleness of [[steel]].<ref name="Weeks 1956"/>

==Early life and education==

Sefström was born in the parish of [[Ilsbo]] in [[Hälsingland]], the son of a [[Lutheran]] minister. After attending the local [[trivialskola]] in [[Hudiksvall]] and the [[gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] at [[Härnösand]], he enrolled briefly at [[Uppsala University]]. In 1809 he moved to [[Stockholm]], supporting himself as a private tutor while following Berzelius's public lectures. With his mentor's financial backing he completed a medical degree at the [[Karolinska Institute]] and served for a short time as an assistant physician at the [[Seraphim Hospital]], but by 1817 he had turned decisively towards chemistry and metallurgy.<ref name="Weeks 1956"/>

==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"/>

==Legacy==

The glacier [[Sefströmbreen]] and the mountain ridge [[Sefströmkammen]] in [[Spitzbergen]] are named in his honour.<ref name="NPI Sefströmbreen"/> Vanadium had in fact been discovered earlier, in 1801, by the Spanish–Mexican mineralogist [[Andrés Manuel del Río]], who called it erythronium; their identity was confirmed by [[Friedrich Wöhler]] in 1831.<ref name="Cintas 2004"/>

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="Cintas 2004">{{cite journal |title=The road to chemical names and eponyms: discovery, priority, and credit |author=Pedro Cintas |journal=Angewandte Chemie International Edition |volume=43 |issue=44 |pages=5888–5894 |year=2004 |doi=10.1002/anie.200330074 |pmid=15376297}}</ref>

<ref name="Weeks 1956">{{cite book |title=The discovery of the elements |last=Weeks |first=Mary Elvira |edition=6th |publisher=Journal of Chemical Education |year=1956 |url=https://archive.org/details/discoveryoftheel002045mbp }}{{rp|682–685}}</ref>

<ref name="Sjöberg 1951">{{cite journal |last=Sjöberg |first=Nils E. |year=1951 |title=Nils Gabriel Sefström |journal=Kungl. Vetenskapsakademiens Årsbok}}</ref>

<ref name="NPI Sefströmbreen">{{cite web |url=http://placenames.npolar.no/stadnamn/Sefströmbreen |title=Sefströmbreen (Svalbard) |publisher=[[Norwegian Polar Institute]] |access-date=28 January 2014 |archive-date=4 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140204022409/http://placenames.npolar.no/stadnamn/Sefstr%C3%B6mbreen |url-status=dead }}</ref>

}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal | author = Sjoberg, Sven Gosta | title = Nils Gabriel Sefstrom and the Discovery of Vanadium | journal = Journal of Chemical Education | volume =28 | issue = 6 | pages = 294&ndash;296 | url = http://search.jce.divched.org/JCEIndex/FMPro?-db=jceindex.fp5&-lay=wwwform&combo=vanadium&-find=&-format=detail.html&-skip=12&-max=1&-token.2=12&-token.3=10 | doi = 10.1021/ed028p294 | year = 1951 |bibcode = 1951JChEd..28..294S }} {{dead link|date=June 2010}} - subscription required
* {{cite journal | author = Weeks, Mary Elvira |author-link=Mary Elvira Weeks| title = The Discovery of the Elements: VII. Columbium, Tantalum, and Vanadium | journal = Journal of Chemical Education | volume = 9 | issue = 5 | pages = 863&ndash;884 | url = http://search.jce.divched.org/JCEIndex/FMPro?-db=jceindex.fp5&-lay=wwwform&combo=vanadium&-find=&-format=detail.html&-skip=14&-max=1&-token.2=14&-token.3=10 | doi = 10.1021/ed009p863 | year = 1932 |bibcode = 1932JChEd...9..863W }} {{dead link|date=June 2010}} - subscription required
* [https://runeberg.org/sbh/b0450.html Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon: Sefström, Nils Gabriel] - in Swedish

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sefstrom}}
[[Category:1787 births]]
[[Category:1845 deaths]]
[[Category:Swedish chemists]]
[[Category:Uppsala University alumni]]
[[Category:Discoverers of chemical elements]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:19th-century Swedish scientists]]
[[Category:19th-century Swedish chemists]]
[[Category:Vanadium]]