Friedrich Stromeyer, discoverer of the chemical element cadmium

2 August 1776, Göttingen (Germany) - 18 August 1835, Göttingen (Germany)

The son of Dr. Ernest Johann Friedrich Stromeyer, professor of medicine at the University of Göttingen, and Marie Magdalena Johanne von Blum, he studied chemistry and medicine in his hometown and in Paris, receiving his medical degree in 1800 and his doctorate shortly thereafter.

In 1805 he began working as a professor of chemistry at the University of Göttingen and also served as an inspector of apothecaries. Among his students was Robert Bunsen.

In 1817, while studying zinc carbonate compounds, he discovered the chemical element cadmium. Cadmium occurs as a common impurity in zinc compounds, although it is often found in very small quantities.

Stromeyer was also the first to recommend starch as a reagent for free iodine and studied the chemistry of arsenic and bismuth salts.

In 1819, he was the first scientist to discover the mineral eudialite, which has few uses due to its rarity and properties, although it can be seen in jewellery.

In 1826 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a proposer being Edward Turner. As his fellowship was ordinary, rather than foreign or honorary, this meant that he was physically in Edinburgh at the time. The following year he was elected a foreign fellow of the Royal Society of London.

In 1832, the mineral stromeyerite was named after him by the mineralogist François Sulpice Beudant.

Since 1982, the Friedrich Stromeyer Prize has been awarded for chemical achievements in Germany.