  per teodor cleve (10 february 1840 â 18 june 1905) was a swedish chemist, biologist, mineralogist, oceanographer, and professor. he discovered the chemical elements holmium and thulium and helped isolate helium from the uranium ore cleveite. cleve was born in stockholm and became an assistant professor at the uppsala university in 1860. he died several months after contracting pleurisy in 1904. ==early life== thumb|left|upright|cleve in 1863 cleve was born in stockholm, sweden, as the thirteenth child of his father, a merchant known as f. t. cleve. cleve's ancestors on his father's side came from western germany and settled in sweden in the late 18th century. cleve showed interest in natural science and natural history from an early age. he attended the stockholm gymnasium in 1858, studying chemistry and biology. he gained a bachelor of science degree from the university of uppsala in 1863 and a phd from the same university in 1868. ==career== in 1860, aged 20, cleve became assistant professor of mineralogy at the university of uppsala, and was appointed assistant professor of chemistry in 1868. he also taught at the royal institute of technology between 1870 and 1874, and eventually became professor of general and agricultural chemistry at the university of uppsala. he was the chair of chemistry at the university of uppsala starting in 1874. he was also the president of the nobel committee for chemistry. cleve's first work was nÃ¥gra ammoniakaliska chromfÃ¶reningar (some compo
1840_births 1905_deaths 19th-century_Swedish_people 19th-century_chemists Discoverers_of_chemical_elements Holmium Members_of_the_Royal_Swedish_Academy_of_Sciences Neodymium People_from_Stockholm Praseodymium Swedish_chemists Swedish_geologists Thulium Uppsala_University_alumni