Seebeck was born in Reval, East Prussia (today Tallinn, Estonia) to a wealthy German merchant family. He received a medical degree in 1802 from the University of Göttingen, but preferred to study physics. In 1821 he discovered the thermoelectric effect, where a junction of dissimilar metals produces an electric current when exposed to a temperature gradient. This is also called the Seebeck effect and is the basis of the thermocouple.