May 22, 1948 - Death of Carlo Perrier, co-discoverer of technetium

Chemist of Italian origin who focused on mineralogy together with the study of radioactivity.

Dedicated to research and teaching, in 1937, at the University of Palermo, together with Emilio Gino Segrè, they discovered technetium, in particular the 97 isotope of technetium, thus filling the last gap in the periodic table that had been sought for so long. It was the first artificially produced element, hence its name. Technetium was found in a sample of molybdenum that had been bombarded with deuterons (heavy hydrogen ions) at the Berkeley University cyclotron.

This chemical element is widely used in medical applications for the diagnosis of disease.

From 1939, he was a professor of mineralogy at the University of Genoa, where he was head of the Institute of Mineralogy until his death.

If you want to know more about this scientist, click on the following link: Carlo Perrier