Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev is a real luminary of Russian science, his name is known throughout the world.
Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev short biography
He was born in Tobolsk on January 27 (February 8), 1834, his father was the director of the local gymnasium. In 1855, Dmitry graduated with honors from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Main Pedagogical University in the capital of the Russian Empire.
A year later he successfully defended his dissertation, becoming a master. A year later, Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev began lecturing at his university on a course in organic chemistry.
Mendeleev was a man of great talent. His natural intelligence and skills acquired during his life made him a significant figure for Russian society.
He was not only a talented scientist – chemist, but also an excellent teacher and active public figure.
In science, Mendeleev’s activities, as in life, were not monotonous. A versatile person, he was the same in science. His works concern such subjects as: economics, education, metrology, physics and chemistry, meteorology, chemical technology.
The discoveries
The main scientific work of a scientist is the periodic table of chemical elements. Dmitry Ivanovich discovered the periodicity of chemical elements while working on a textbook for his students.
At the university where Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev taught, there were no worthwhile textbooks, and the Russian scientist sat down to write “Fundamentals of Chemistry.” The periodic table of chemical elements was discovered on February 17, 1869.
The discovery of the Russian scientist was greeted unflatteringly by the world intelligentsia. However, the elements whose existence the chemist predicted were soon discovered: germanium, gallium, scandium.
After this, Mendeleev’s periodic table received worldwide recognition, as well as widespread distribution and application. All inorganic chemistry is based on the discovery of the Russian scientist. Without his discovery, it is difficult to imagine what chemistry as a science would be like today.
Let’s briefly talk about the other most important and significant scientific achievements of this great man. In physics, the Russian scientist “added”: the absolute boiling point of liquids, and derived the equation for the state of one mole of an ideal gas. In metrology, he created an accurate theory of scales and proposed new, precise methods for weighing bodies.
Mendeleev made his discoveries for a reason. He understood that the economic development of a country greatly depends on its scientific development. The chemist devoted a lot of time, first of all, to the needs of the mining and chemical industries of the Russian Empire.
Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev wasn’t only a chemist
Mendeleev also paid attention to agriculture. He shared the ideas of Dokuchaev, who advocated the organization of the Department of Soil Science at leading institutes. Dmitry Ivanovich believed that it was possible to increase the fertility of cultivated land with the help of fertilizers. He is devoted a lot of time to the problem of irrigation of the Lower Volga region, to improve land fertility.
In his memory
Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev was the owner of more than one hundred and thirty different certificates and diplomas from domestic and foreign scientific communities. The name of the Russian scientist is immortalized in the names of metro stations, streets, ridges and volcanoes on Earth and craters on the Moon.
The chemical element of his table, mendelevium, discovered by scientists from America in the mid-20th century, is also named after him.
Mendeleev died in St. Petersburg in January 1907. Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev is rightfully considered one of the most outstanding scientists in the whole world.
