Berzelius Jöns Jakob

Ber·ze·li·us

 (bər-zē′lē-əs, bĕr-sā′lē-o͝os′), Baron Jöns Jakob 1779-1848.

Swedish chemist who published a table of atomic weights (1828); contributed to electrochemical theory; discovered cerium (1803), selenium (1817), and thorium (1828); and isolated silicon (1823).

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Ber·ze·li·us

(bər-zē′lē-əs), Baron Jöns Jakob 1779-1848.

Swedish chemist who is regarded as one of the founders of modern chemistry. Berzelius developed the concepts of the ion and of ionic compounds and made extensive determinations of atomic weights. In 1811 he introduced the classical system of chemical symbols, in which the names of elements are identified by one or two letters.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.