Step 1 : Introduction to the question "1. What is the first element to be named after an institution of higher learning?"
...1. Erbium 2. Ytterbium 3. Terbium 4. Berkelium While there are many element toponyms or elements named after places, Berkelium (Bk) is named for the University of California at Berkeley because it was synthesized during research projects performed at Berkeley's physics laboratory. The other choices are also element toponyms but are ALL named after the Swedish village of Ytterby: Erbium, Terbium, Ytterbium and Yttrium, four rare-earth elements of the periodic table named after one village on a tiny island in the Stockholm archipelago. How could this be, you might ask? It seems that the Ytterby ("it-ter-bee") mine was opened in the late 1700s to find feldspar and became "the Galapagos of the periodic table"*.