Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834 - 1907)

Born 27 Jan 1834 in Verkhnie Aremzyani, Siberia, Russia

Ancestors

Died 20 Jan 1907 at age 72 in St. Petersburg, Russia

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Dmitri Mendeleev is Notable.

Biography

Dmitri was born in 1834. He passed away in 1907. He was the son of Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev (abt.1783-abt.1847) and Maria Dmitrievna Mendeleeva (née Kornilieva) (1793—1850). His paternal grandfather Pavel Maximovich Sokolov was a Russian Orthodox priest from the Tver region.

He is considered to be the father of the periodic table of the elements. Mendeleev was widely honored by scientific organizations all over Europe. The Royal Society of London awarded him the Davy Medal in 1882 and the Copley Medal in 1905.

In 1905, Mendeleev was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The following year the Nobel Committee for Chemistry recommended to the Swedish Academy to award the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Mendeleev for his discovery of the periodic system, but it was awarded to Henri Moissan instead, supposedly due to the influence of Svante Arrhenius.

Mendeleev also researched the composition of petroleum, and helped to found the first oil refinery in Russia. He recognized the importance of petroleum as a feedstock for petrochemicals. He is credited with a remark that burning petroleum as a fuel "would be akin to firing up a kitchen stove with bank notes." ^[1]

Dmitriy Mendeleev: A Short CV, and A Story of Life

Mendeleev's grandfather Pavel Maximovich Sokolov was the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church in a small village of Tikhomandritcy (2 km away from the Udomlya lake, Tver' region, Russia). According to the church books, four of his children, Timofey, Natalya, Tatyana and Praskovya, were given the family name 'Sokolov,' whereas Alexander was recorded as Tikhomandritckii, Vasiliy - as Pokrovskiy, and Ivan - as Mendeleev.

Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev (1783-1847), father of the great scientist, graduated from the Orthodox Seminary in Tver' (1804) and then from the St.-Petersburg Pedagogical institute (1807). He was a teacher at several schools (initially, in Tobolsk, and then in Tambov and Saratov). In 1820s, he returned to Tobolsk (Siberia) to serve as the director of gymnasium through 1834.

In 1809, Ivan Mendeleev married Maria Dmitrievna Kornilyeva (1793-1850). Maria's grandfather, Vasiliy Kornilyev (died in 1795), a successful merchant and owner of the first Siberian glass factory (built in 1749) had become the first Siberian typographer and publisher in 1780s. Maria's father, Dmitriy Kornilyev (1763-1830) continued the family publishing activity, though being less successful.

Dmitriy Mendeleev was the 17th (and the last) child in the Mendeleevs' family; 3 children died on their births, and therefore only 14 children got Christian names: Maria (1811- 1826), Olga (1815-1866), Ekaterina (1816-1901), Appolinaria (1822- 1848), Elizaveta (1823-1852), Ivan (1826-1862), Maria jr. (1828- 1911), Pavel (1832-1902), and Dmitriy (1834-1907); five others (to some sources - Victor, Varvara, Nikolay, Varvara jr. and Ilya) died in their childhood.

Many intellectuals used to visit the Mendeleevs' house in Tobolsk, including the liberal political exiles, the Decembrists, who were sentenced to the labor in Siberia after their anti-tsar revolt in 1825 in St. Petersburg. The Mendeleevs had an excellent library and lived in comfort. However, in 1834 Ivan Mendeleev went blind as the result of the eye cataract, and, despite the successful surgery, had to retire with an insufficient pension. His wife, Maria tried to support her family by governing her brother's glass factory, although without much of success. Eventually, the factory was burnt down, and shortly thereafter Maria's husband, Ivan Mendeleev died. ^{[2] [3]}

Relatives

Anna Ivanovna (Popova) Mendeleev wrote a memoir about her husband, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev's life^[4], ^[5]. A great number of (condensed) facts can be found in a 175th anniversary commemoration of Dmitri Mendeleev's birth^{[6] [7]}.

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia: Dmitri_Mendeleev
2. ↑ Babaev, Eugene V. (2009). Dmitriy Mendeleev: A Short CV, and A Story of Life, http://www.mendcomm.org/mendeleev.aspx
3. ↑ Babaev, Eugene V. (2009). Dmitriy Mendeleev: A Short CV, and A Story of Life, https://web.archive.org/web/20210225032529/http://www.mendcomm.org/mendeleev.aspx
4. ↑ Менделеева, Анна Ивановна. (1928). Менделеев в жизни. Издание М. и С. Сабашниковых. https://libcat.ru/knigi/dokumentalnye-knigi/biografii-i-memuary/74031-anna-mendeleeva-mendeleev-v-zhizni.html
5. ↑ Mendeleeva, Anna Ivanovna. (1928). Mendeleev in life. M. and S. Sabashnikovs. https://libcat.ru/knigi/dokumentalnye-knigi/biografii-i-memuary/74031-anna-mendeleeva-mendeleev-v-zhizni.html
6. ↑ Babaev, Eugene V. (2009). Dmitriy Mendeleev: A Short CV, and A Story of Life, http://www.mendcomm.org/mendeleev.aspx
7. ↑ Babaev, Eugene V. (2009). Dmitriy Mendeleev: A Short CV, and A Story of Life, https://web.archive.org/web/20210225032529/http://www.mendcomm.org/mendeleev.aspx

• The Britannica Guide to The 100 Most Influential Scientist (2007), pp. 209-212.