Dmitri Mendeleev Fact Sheet: Who was Dmitri Mendeleev? The following short biography and fact sheet provides interesting facts about the life, times and history of Dmitri Mendeleev.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact File: Lifespan: 1834 - 1907*** Full Name: Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev *** Occupation: Russian Chemist and Inventor *** Date of Birth: Dmitri Mendeleev was born February 8th 1834 *** Place of Birth: Dmitri Mendeleev was born in Verkhnie Aremzyani, Tobolsk Governorate, Russian Empire *** Family background: His father was Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev and his mother was Maria Dmitrievna Kornilieva. His grandfather was a Russian Orthodox Church Priest, Pavel Maximovich Sokolov from the region of Tver. His father was a teacher, and taught politics and philosophy as well as about fine arts *** Early life and childhood: He grew up raised as a Orthodox Christian with his mother encouraging him to “patiently search divine and scientific truth” *** Education: Dmitri Mendeleev began his education at home and later attended the Gymnasium, a school with strong teaching in academic learning and also provided advanced secondary education comparable to that of a British grammar school ***

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 1: Dmitri Mendeleev was born on February 8th 1834 and during the 19th century period in history when great strides were made in innovations, science and medicine.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 2: Sadly his father lost his eyesight and subsequently lost his job so his mother had to work and endeavored to reinstate the family business of the glass factory previously abandoned.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 3: His father continued to deteriorate until he died when his son was just thirteen years of age.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 4: His mother at that point traveled from Siberia to Moscow and her aim was to ensure her son received the best education possible. Unfortunately her first choice, the University of Moscow, would not accept him. They moved on to St Petersburg to his father’s alma mater, the whole family relocating to Saint Petersburg and he enrolled at the Main Pedagogical Institute in the year of 1850.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 5: He contracted tuberculosis however after graduation and he was forced to move to the northern coast of the Black Sea and to the Crimean Peninsula in 1855. While residing there he became a science master but later returned completed healthy to Saint Petersburg.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 6: Between the years of 1859 and 1861 capilliarity of liquids what was he concentrated on and the mechanics of the Spectroscope while in Heidelberg.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 7: He wrote his first book on the spectroscope in August of 1861.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 8: In April of 1862 he became betrothed to Feozva Nikitichna Leshcheva and on April 27th that year they married.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 9: In 1864 he became a professor at the Saint Petersburg State University as well as the Saint Petersburg Technological Institute.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 10: In 1865 after presenting his dissertation “On the Combinations of Water and Alcohol” he would become a Doctor of Science and achieved tenure by 1867.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 11: With hard work and dedication he managed to get Saint Petersburg recognized as an international center for chemistry and research.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 12: He met Anna Ivanova Popova in 1876 and proposed marriage, threatening to kill himself if she refused even though he was still legally married. One month before his divorce was finalized he was remarried, illegally. According to the Russian Orthodox Church seven years was required between a divorce and remarriage and this would have catastrophic effect on his career.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 13: As a result of his marital status he was refused admittance to the Russian Academy of Sciences regardless of his international reputation.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 14: His work was widely recognized and acknowledged across Europe and he honored with awards such as the Davy Medal presented to him by the Royal Society of London.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 15: In 1890 he resigned from the Saint Petersburg University and two years later was elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 16: He would become leading in founding the first oil refinery in Russia and investigating petroleum composition and would recognize the significance of petroleum as a feedstock for petrochemicals.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 17: By 1905 he would be elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Nobel Committee for Chemistry recommended that the Swedish Academy award Mendeleev with the Novel Prize in Chemistry for his discovering of the periodic system in 1906.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 18: Two members of the board were opposed to Mendeleev’s recommendation and several other committee members were easily swayed to vote for another having previous grudges against Mendeleev for one reason or another. He lost out of Moissan and although he was nominated the following year he was still not a recipient.

Dmitri Mendeleev Fact 19: Dmitri Mendeleev died in Saint Petersburg in 1907 from influenza at the age of 72.

Influence and Legacy: Having discovered the periodic table in his honor element number 101 was named after him, radioactive mendelevium and a crater on the Moon was named after him. He was also responsible for various other important contributions to the world of chemistry as well as being credited with introducing the metric system and “In 1894, Dmitri Mendeleev, the greatest scientist in all Russia, received the decree to set the Imperial quality standard for Russian vodka and the ‘Russian Standard’ was born.”