Andrés Manuel del Rio y Fernández (November 10, 1764 – March 23, 1849) was born in Madrid. He was the original person to discover the element Vanadium. After receiving his BS (1780) from the University of Alcalá de Hernares through his studies in analytical chemistry and metallurgy, he received a scholarship to study at Spain’s Royal Academy of Mines in Almadén, Spain. He was then sent to study chemistry at the Collège de France in 1783. His education continued at the Mining Academy in Freiberg, Germany, in 1789. He visited the metallurgical industries in England in 1791, before returning to Paris. However he escaped Paris during the French Revolution.
In 1793, Andrés accepted the position of Chair of Mineralogy for the newly formed College of Mines in New Spain (Mexico City). He would partner with German explorer Alexander von Humboldt, who would send back minerals from his surveys of the surrounding colonies. In 1801, Andrés isolated what we now know as the element Vanadium and sent it to Paris for further analysis. It was not until 1830 that scientists would rediscover Vanadium and uncover that the incorrect analysis of Andrés’s original samples had prevented its earlier identification.
Andrés lobbied for the independence of Mexico, which they obtained in 1821, and he was allowed to return and live in Mexico after the revolution. In 1829, following the expulsion of Spanish residents by the Mexican government due to Spanish efforts to recolonize Mexico, Andrés was offered an exception and allowed to stay in Mexico. Still, he rejected the offer and chose exile in Philadelphia alongside his scientific colleagues, but eventually he would return to the College of Mines as chair of Mineralogy and Geology in 1834. After he died in 1849, his likeness was engraved into the National Chemistry Prize awarded by the Chemical Society of Mexico. Additionally, his contributions laid the foundation for the Institute of Geology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
REFERENCES:
- https://acshist.scs.illinois.edu/awards/OPA%20Papers/2006-Caswell.pdf
- https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed012p161
- https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/english/vanadium-chemical-element-discovered-mexico/
IMAGE SOURCE:
- Andrés Manuel del Rio (1825)
- by Rafael Ximeno y Planes – Museo Tolsá – Palacio de Minería – Mexico
- CC BY-SA 4.0
