Dmitri Mendeleev

Who is Dmitri Mendeleev?

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was born in 1834 in Tobolsk, Siberia, the youngest of a large family. After studying in Saint Petersburg he became a professor of chemistry at Saint Petersburg University. In 1869 he formulated the periodic law and published a periodic table of the chemical elements, arranging them by atomic weight and recurring chemical properties. His crucial insight was to leave gaps for elements not yet discovered and to predict their properties; the later discovery of gallium, scandium and germanium closely matched his predictions, confirming the power of his system. Mendeleev made contributions to many fields, including the study of solutions, the expansion of gases, and the standardization of Russian industry and metrology; he served as director of Russia's Bureau of Weights and Measures. He also wrote an influential textbook, 'Principles of Chemistry.' The element mendelevium (atomic number 101) is named in his honor. He died in Saint Petersburg in 1907.

Sources: Dmitri Mendeleev, Principles of Chemistry (1868–1871) · Michael D. Gordin, A Well-Ordered Thing: Dmitrii Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table (2004) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, entry 'Dmitri Mendeleev'