Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907)

Dmitri Mendeleev was born in Tobalsk, Siberia in Russia. After his father’s death, the family moved to St. Petersburg. He received his Master’s degree in Chemistry in 1856 and the doctoral degree in 1865. He taught at the University of St.Petersburg where he was appointed Professor of General Chemistry in 1867. Preliminary work for his great textbook “Principles of Chemistry” led Mendeleev to propose the Periodic Law and to construct his Periodic Table of elements. At that time, the structure of atom was unknown and Mendeleev’s idea to consider that the properties of the elements were in someway related to their atomic masses was a very imaginative one. To place certain elements into the correct group from the point of view of their chemical properties, Mendeleev reversed the order of some pairs of elements and asserted that their atomic masses were incorrect. Mendeleev also had the foresight to leave gaps in the Periodic Table for elements unknown at that time and predict their properties from the trends that he observed among the properties of related elements. Mendeleev’s predictions were proved to be astonishingly correct when these elements were discovered later.

Mendeleev’s Periodic Law spurred several areas of research during the subsequent decades. The discovery of the first two noble gases helium and argon in 1890 suggested the possibility that there must be other similar elements to fill an entire family. This idea led Ramsay to his successful search for krypton and xenon. Work on the radioactive decay series for uranium and thorium in the early years of twentieth century was also guided by the Periodic Table.

Mendeleev was a versatile genius. He worked on many problems connected with Russia’s natural resources. He invented an accurate barometer. In 1890, he resigned from the Professorship. He was appointed as the Director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures. He continued to carry out important research work in many areas until his death in 1907.

Mendeleev’s name has been immortalized by naming the element with atomic number 101, as Mendelevium. This name was proposed by American scientist Glenn T. Seaborg, the discoverer of this element, “in recognition of the pioneering role of the great Russian Chemist who was the first to use the periodic system of elements to predict the chemical properties of undiscovered elements, a principle which has been the key to the discovery of nearly all the transuranium elements”.