Urban Hjärne

Urban Hjärne (20 December 1641 – 10 March 1724) was a Swedish chemist, geologist, physician and writer.

He was the son of vicar Erlandus Jonæ Hiærne (1596–1654) and Christina Tomasdotter Schmidt (1615–1682).

For several years he visited Northern Europe's leading research center for medicine.

In 1674 he settled as a physician in Stockholm where his practice primarily served the aristocracy.

He was a member of the Witchcraft Commission in the Katarina witch trials during the Great noise in 1676, and is remembered as one of the members of the commission who started to feel scepticism toward witchraft and doubt the child witnesses, leading to the witnesses to be exposed as liars and the dissolution of the Katarina witch trials, the Witcraft Commission, and ultimately the entire witch hunt.