Jöns Jacob Berzelius

Friherre Jöns Jacob Berzelius was a Swedish chemist whose monumental experimental precision systematized the entire discipline of chemistry. Overcoming childhood poverty and orphanhood, Berzelius studied medicine at Uppsala University before becoming professor at the Karolinska Institute and permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.

Berzelius single-handedly invented the modern system of chemical notation—replacing cumbersome alchemy symbols with simple alphabetical letters derived from Latin names (H, O, C, Fe) accompanied by numerical proportions, which remains the universal language of chemistry. Over a decade of grueling gravimetric experiments, he determined the precise atomic weights of forty-five elements. Furthermore, Berzelius discovered or isolated several elements, including cerium (1803), selenium (1817), silicon (1824), and thorium (1828), and coined foundational chemical terms including 'catalysis', 'isomerism', 'allotropy', and 'protein'.