Hippolyte-Victor Collet-Descotils

Hippolyte-Victor Collet-Descotils (21 November 1773 in <a href="/facts/Caen/nacGkhQF">Caen</a> – 6 December 1815 in <a href="/facts/Paris/DrNHpwnA">Paris</a>) was a French chemist. He studied in the <a href="/facts/%25C3%2589cole_des_Mines_de_Paris/xLpmkXIf">École des Mines de Paris</a>, and was a student and friend of <a href="/facts/Louis_Nicolas_Vauquelin/ygSb9h9Q">Louis Nicolas Vauquelin</a>.
He is best known for confirming the discovery of <a href="/facts/Chromium/6sVk6Uu7">chromium</a> by Vauquelin, and for independently discovering <a href="/facts/Iridium/cB4n6MbQ">iridium</a> in 1803.
In 1806, Collet-Descotils misidentified erythronium, a new element discovered in Mexico by <a href="/facts/Andr%25C3%25A9s_Manuel_del_R%25C3%25ADo/JtjulKWC">Andrés Manuel del Río</a>, thinking that it was chromium. This resulted in <a href="/facts/Alexander_von_Humboldt/5AuxyDbh">Alexander von Humboldt</a> rejecting Del Río's discovery. The same element was rediscovered thirty years later in Sweden and renamed as <a href="/facts/Vanadium/UvKkKTSm">vanadium</a>.
In 1815, a few months before his death, he got the position of director of <a href="/facts/%25C3%2589cole_des_Mines_de_Paris/xLpmkXIf">École des Mines de Paris</a>, in charge of transferring the school to a new building. He is buried in the 10th Division of the <a href="/facts/P%25C3%25A8re_Lachaise_Cemetery/cqgqNSzf">Père Lachaise Cemetery</a> of Paris.

Hippolyte-Victor Collet-Descotils open-in-new

Hippolyte-Victor Collet-Descotils