Johan Afzelius (13 June 1753 in

Larv Larv is a village situated in Vara Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 216 inhabitants in 2005. It was the birthplace of the botanist Adam Afzelius Adam Afzelius (8 October 175020 January 1837) was a Swedish botanist and an apo ...

– 20 May 1837 in

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 ...

) was a Swedish chemist and notable as the

doctoral advisor A doctoral advisor (also dissertation director, dissertation advisor; or doctoral supervisor) is a member of a university faculty whose role is to guide graduate students who are candidates for a doctorate, helping them select coursework, as well ...

of one of the founders of modern chemistry, Jöns Jacob Berzelius. He was the brother of botanist

Adam Afzelius Adam Afzelius (8 October 175020 January 1837) was a Swedish botanist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Afzelius was born at Larv in Västergötland in 1750. He was appointed teacher of oriental languages at Uppsala University in 1777, and in 17 ...

and physician

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 ...

. Afzelius received his PhD 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 1776 under Torbern Olof Bergman. In 1780 he became a lecturer at Uppsala and in 1784 a professor of chemistry.Nordisk familjebok
Uggleupplagan. 1. A - Armati From 1792 to 1797 he undertook research trips to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

in order to study mineral deposits and to visit scientific institutions. His remarkable mineral collection became part of Uppsala University's mineral cabinet. Afzelius did

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...

analyses, and made contributions to the journal ''Afhandlingar i fysik, kemi och mineralogi'' (Treatises on

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, chemistry and mineralogy). He is notable for having isolated formic acid from

ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of ...

s and showing that formic acid was different from the closely related acetic acid. He also studied the chemistry of

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...

and oxalic acid. In 1801, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Published works

* ''Dissertatio chemica de niccolo'', (with Torbern Bergman), 1775 – dissertation on nickel. * ''Dissertatio chemica de acido sacchari'' (with Torbern Bergman), 1776 – dissertation on saccharinic acid. * ''Dissertatio chemica de acido formicarum'', (with Petrus Öhrn), 1777 – dissertation on formic acid. * ''Dissertatio chemica de baroselenite'' (with Axel Fryxell) 1788 – dissertation on barium selenite.OCLC World Cat
published works

References

* J.R. Partington, ''A History of Chemistry,'' Macmillan: 1962, vol. 3, p. 200. * ''Svenskt biografiskt lexikon,'' Albert Bonniers: 1918–1985, vol. 1, pp. 218–224. {{DEFAULTSORT:Afzelius, Johan 1753 births 1837 deaths People from Vara Municipality Swedish chemists Swedish mineralogists Uppsala University alumni Uppsala University faculty Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences