Per Teodor Cleve was a Swedish chemist and geologist.

After graduating from the Stockholm Gymnasium

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

 in 1858, Cleve matriculated at Uppsala University

Uppsala University

Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...

 in May 1858, where he received his PhD in 1863. After employment with the university in Uppsala and travels in Europe and North America, he received a professorship of general and agricultural chemistry in Uppsala in 1874. He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...

 in 1871 and he received the Davy Medal

Davy Medal

The Davy Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London "for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry". Named after Humphry Davy, the medal is awarded with a gift of £1000. The medal was first awarded in 1877 to Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff "for...

 of the Royal Society

Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

 in 1894, "for his researches on the chemistry of the rare earths". The mineral cleveite

Cleveite

Cleveite is a radioactive mineral containing uranium and found in Norway. It is an impure variety of uraninite, and has the composition UO2 with about 10% of the uranium substituted by rare earth elements...

 was named in 1878 by the geologist and explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld

Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld

Freiherr Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld , also known as A. E. Nordenskioeld was a Finnish baron, geologist, mineralogist and arctic explorer of Finnish-Swedish origin. He was a member of the prominent Finland-Swedish Nordenskiöld family of scientists...

 in his honour. Cleve was the father of the botanist and chemist

Chemist

A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...

 Astrid Cleve

Astrid Cleve

Astrid M. Cleve von Euler was a Swedish botanist, geologist, chemist and researcher at Uppsala University. She was the first female in Sweden to obtain a doctoral degree of science.-Life:...

 and the grandfather of her son, Ulf von Euler

Ulf von Euler

Ulf Svante von Euler was a Swedish physiologist and pharmacologist. He won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1970 for his work on neurotransmitters.-Life:...

, a Nobel prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

 winner, physiologist and pharmacologist.

In 1874, he concluded that didymium

Didymium

Didymium is a mixture of the elements praseodymium and neodymium. It is used in safety glasses for glassblowing and blacksmithing, especially when a gas powered forge is used, where it provides a filter which selectively blocks the yellowish light at 589 nm emitted by the hot sodium in the glass,...

 was in fact two elements, now known as neodymium

Neodymium

Neodymium is a chemical element with the symbol Nd and atomic number 60. It is a soft silvery metal that tarnishes in air. Neodymium was discovered in 1885 by the Austrian chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach. It is present in significant quantities in the ore minerals monazite and bastnäsite...

 and praseodymium

Praseodymium

Praseodymium is a chemical element that has the symbol Pr and atomic number 59. Praseodymium is a soft, silvery, malleable and ductile metal in the lanthanide group. It is too reactive to be found in native form, and when artificially prepared, it slowly develops a green oxide coating.The element...

. He also discovered the elements holmium

Holmium

Holmium is a chemical element with the symbol Ho and atomic number 67. Part of the lanthanide series, holmium is a rare earth element. Its oxide was first isolated from rare earth ores in 1878 and the element was named after the city of Stockholm....

 and thulium

Thulium

Thulium is a chemical element that has the symbol Tm and atomic number 69. Thulium is the second least abundant of the lanthanides . It is an easily workable metal with a bright silvery-gray luster...

 in 1879.

External links