Anders Gustaf Ekeberg ( Stockholm, Sweden, 16 January 1767 –

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Located north of the c ...

, Sweden, 11 February 1813) was a Swedish

analytical chemist Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify, and quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute the entire analysis or be combined with another method. Separati ...

who discovered

tantalum Tantalum is a chemical element with the symbol Ta and atomic number 73. Previously known as ''tantalium'', it is named after Tantalus, a villain in Greek mythology. Tantalum is a very hard, ductile, lustrous, blue-gray transition metal that ...

in 1802. - subscription required He was notably

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

Education

Anders Gustav Ekeberg was a Swedish scientist, mathematician and expert in Greek literature. His father, Joseph Erik Ekeberg, was a shipbuilder. His uncle was

Carl Gustaf Ekeberg Carl Gustaf Ekeberg (10 June 1716 – 4 April 1784) was a Swedish physician, chemist and explorer. He made several voyages to the East Indies and China as a sea captain. He brought back reports of the tea tree and wrote a number of books. Bio ...

. Anders Gustav Ekeberg attended school at

Kalmar Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 36,392 inhabitants in 2010 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

, Söderåkra, Vestervik, and Karlskrona. He was a gifted student and enrolled at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

in 1784, graduating in 1788. His thesis addressed the extraction of oils from seeds. In 1789 and 1790, he traveled and studied in Germany, hearing

Martin Heinrich Klaproth Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1 December 1743 – 1 January 1817) was a German chemist. He trained and worked for much of his life as an apothecary, moving in later life to the university. His shop became the second-largest apothecary in Berlin, and ...

lecture in Berlin as well as

Christian Ehrenfried Weigel Christian Ehrenfried von Weigel (24 May 1748 – 8 August 1831) was a Swedish-born German scientist and, beginning in 1774, a professor of chemistry, pharmacy, botany, and mineralogy at the University of Greifswald. Biography Born in Stra ...

Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (german: Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rosto ...

Career

In 1794, Anders Gustav Ekeberg began teaching at Uppsala. He was a supporter of

Antoine Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( , ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794),
CNRS (

chemical nomenclature. In 1795 he and

Pehr von Afzelius Pehr von Afzelius (14 December 1760, Larv – 2 December 1843 in Uppsala, Sweden) was a Swedish medical doctor and professor in Uppsala. Afzelius was the brother of botanist Adam Afzelius, chemist Johan Afzelius, and doctoral advisor of Jacob Be ...

published the first article to introduce the modern names for chemical elements such as hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen into the Swedish language, "On the Present State of Chemical Sciences". He was made

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de con ...

in chemistry in 1794 and experimentator (''laborator'') in 1799, working as a demonstrator in the laboratory of

Torbern Bergman Torbern Olaf (Olof) Bergman (''KVO'') (20 March 17358 July 1784) was a Swedish chemist and mineralogist noted for his 1775 ''Dissertation on Elective Attractions'', containing the largest chemical affinity tables ever published. Bergman was the ...

. In 1798 he lectured on the theory of combustion. In 1799, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Ekeberg suffered from poor health throughout his life. During his childhood a severe cold had impaired his hearing, which was further weakened over the years, so that it hindered his teaching activities. Subsequently, a gas explosion blinded him in one eye. Ekeberg was portrayed by his friends and students as a kind and gentle man. He died, unmarried, at the age of 46.

Research

Ekeberg analyzed a number of the minerals found at

Ytterby Ytterby () is a village on the Swedish island of Resarö, in Vaxholm Municipality in the Stockholm archipelago. Today the residential area is dominated by suburban homes. The name of the village translates to "outer village". Ytterby is per ...

and

Falun Falun () is a city and the seat of Falun Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 37,291 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Dalarna County. Falun forms, together with Borlänge, a metropolitan area with just over 100,000 inhabitan ...

. In 1802 he analyzed specimens of tantalite from

Kimito Kimito (; fi, Kemiö ) is a former municipality of Finland. On January 1, 2009, it was consolidated with Dragsfjärd and Västanfjärd to form the new municipality of Kimitoön. Prior to the consolidation, it was one of the four municipalities ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, and of yttrotantalite from

, Sweden. He is credited with finding the element

in both. Ekeberg named the new element after the mythical Ancient Greek demigod Tantalus. According to legend, he was condemned to eternal frustration when he had to stand in water up to his neck, but the water receded as he attempted to drink.

The Anders Gustaf Ekeberg Tantalum Prize

In 2018 the Tantalum-Niobium International Study Center established The Anders Gustaf Ekeberg Tantalum Prize ("Ekeberg Prize"), an annual award to recognize excellence in tantalum research. The Prize will increase awareness of the many unique properties of tantalum products and the applications in which they excel. The inaugural winner of the Ekeberg Prize was Yuri Freeman, for his book “Tantalum and Niobium-Based Capacitors” (Springer, 2018).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ekeberg, Anders Gustaf 18th-century Swedish chemists Uppsala University alumni Uppsala University faculty 1767 births 1813 deaths Discoverers of chemical elements Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 19th-century Swedish chemists Tantalum Deaf people from Sweden Rare earth scientists