Axel Vilhelmovich Gadolin (Russian: Аксель Вильгельмович Гадолин; 12 June 1828 – 15 December 1892) was a Finnish/Russian lieutenant general, and also a scientist in the field of artillery, metallurgy, mineralogy and crystallography.

Gadolin graduated from the Mikhailov Artillery Academy in 1849 and remained their to teach;[2] his initial appointment was as a lecturer in physics.

While at the artillery school he developed techniques for building high velocity canons, which significantly increased the range that a shell could be propelled.

Gadolin's most famous scientific work is entitled Deduction of all Crystallographic Systems and their Subdivisions by Means of a Single General Principle.

Gadolin work was often cited[11] as the most important source for the systematic derivation of the crystal classes without using the concepts of group theory.

Gadolin, who was unaware of the work of his predecessors,[13][14] found them independently using stereographic projection to represent the symmetry elements of the 32 groups.