Biography

Dmitri Mendeleev was the scientist credited with the first periodic table.

On February 8, 1834, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was born to Ivan Pavlovich and Maria Korniliev in Tobolsk, Siberia. Dmitri’s family owned a glass factory, and it appears that his interest in science began watching the production of glass. Shortly after his father died, his mother took him took him to the St. Petersburg Pedagogical Institute in 1853. In 1856, he received his master’s degree in science. His scientific career progressed as he was employed by the Russian government to accumulate new technology (Russia was still behind technologically speaking), was appointed professor at universities, and awarded a doctorate of sciences.


Between 1869, Mendeleev published his work, Principles of Chemistry, in which he brought to attention new theories including a periodic law. He arranged the known elements of the time into a table, intelligently leaving out elements that he believed existed and were to be discovered. His table, or the periodic table, is the basis of the one chemists, students, and anyone interested in chemistry use today.

He continued to research and write during his lifetime, discovering what would be the element Germanium, and won numerous awards and a large amount of respect in his field. As for his romantic life, Mendeleev was married two times; first, Feozva Nikitchna Lascheva and second, Anna Ivanova Popova.

After his death on February 2, 1907, Mendeleev was still as venerated. Scientists in 1955 decided to name an element they discovered “mendelevium,” universities bear his name, and all chemists know of him.