Perovskite, CaTiO3, was discovered and named in 1839 by Gustav Rose, German chemist and mineralogist (1798-1873), the year he was appointed professor at Berlin University. To Rose we owe sanidine (1808), anorthite (1823), and cancrinite (1859) as well. Alexander von Humboldt whom the Tsar of Russia had asked to explore the far reaches of his empire chose Rose as a fellow traveller. Rose's report "Reise nach dem Ural, Altai und dem Kaspischen Meer", was published in Berlin between 1837 and 1842. It is presumably there that Rose first mentioned perovskite. |