Dimitri Mendeleev: biography of the chemist and author of the periodic table.

A review of the life of this influential chemist and researcher.

Probably most of the people reading these lines will have seen, studied or worked with the periodic table, in which the different elements are arranged according to their atomic weight and valence. Although today we see this table as something that, although complex, represents a logical arrangement and we take its veracity for granted, the truth is that its creation is so recent in time that it was originally little taken into account.

The author of this table is the famous chemist Dimitri Mendeleev, whose biography we will make a brief review in this article. in this article.

Dimitri Mendeleev's biography.

Dmitri Mendeleev, whose full name was Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, was born on February 8, 1834 of our Gregorian calendar in Tobolsk, Siberia.. Born into a large family, he was the youngest of seventeen children of school principal Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev and Mariya Dmitriyevna Kornilevas.

During the same year of his birth his father lost his job as well as his eyesight, which resulted in a somewhat precarious situation for the family. Fortunately his mother went on to run a glass factory owned by her family. This generated in the small Mendeleev some curiosity, being frequent that his mother took him with her to the factory.

In that factory he would meet one of the chemists who worked there, something that would end up generating in Mendeleev a certain curiosity.This, together with the influence of an exiled brother-in-law, would eventually generate in the young boy a great interest in scientific subjects.

Early education

Regarding his childhood education, the young Mendeleev was already in his early childhood. showed some interest in aspects such as mathematics and physics.. However, his grades in all other subjects were rather low. Nevertheless, he managed to obtain his baccalaureate at that time.

The year 1848 would be a difficult year for the young man, since during this year his father died. In addition, during the month of December of the same year, the factory that his mother managed suffered a fire that ended with its destruction. The family moved to Moscow, because his mother decided to devote her savings to the education of the youngest child of the family.

However, due to his Siberian origin he was denied access to the University of that city. After that they moved to St. Petersburgwhere, for the same reasons, he was denied admission to the university. However, he was finally able to enroll in the Main Pedagogical Institute of the latter city.

When he was in his early twenties, the man who was to become one of history's great chemists developed a number of health problems, among them the presence of violent coughs that were sometimes accompanied by blood.. This raised the possibility of tuberculosis, but he managed to recover from his illness (whether or not it was a case of tuberculosis is not entirely clear).

He graduated in 1855, his mother having died shortly before, presenting a thesis On specific volumes. After that he obtained a teaching position in a school in the Crimea. A few months later, however, he moved to the city of Odessa he moved to the city of Odessa in the Ukraine as a teacher in a local lyceum..

In 1856 he obtained a scholarship that served him to move to Germany, extending his studies at the University of Heidelberg and even owning a laboratory in his own home. At this stage he was able to meet great personalities of chemistry and physics, such as Kirchhoff or Cannizzaro, and even participate in the International Congress of Chemistry in Karlsruhe. He would later return to St. Petersburg.

Professional life and scientific contributions

By 1864 he was appointed Professor of Technology and Chemistry at the Technical Institute of St. Petersburg and three years later he held the chair of Chemistry at the University of the same city. However, his reformist ideas and liberal tendencies did not please the elite of the time, and he was denied membership in the Imperial Academy of Sciences.

It was in 1869 when he published the book Principles of Chemistryin which he formulated his contribution to the best known science, the periodic table.. This table was based on classifying the elements in an increasing way according to their atomic mass, establishing an order from lowest to highest and even proposing the existence of elements not yet discovered with properties located between two of those already recognized.

However, although this would be his most recognized contribution, it is not the only one: Mendeleev worked on such varied subjects as the expansion of liquids, the search for and discovery of the critical point and great contributions and great contributions that made it possible to improve the Russian oil industry.

He also made several contributions such as the preparation of smokeless gunpowder (developing his own formula). However, in 1890 he resigned from his position at the university after a conflict due to his support for student protests.

He withdrew from political life for a time, but later became an advisor to the government, including the Ministry of Finance. In '93 he became director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures (also a powerful influence in bringing the metric system to Russia). (he was also a powerful influence in bringing the metric system to Russia). Later he explored aspects such as radioactivity (meeting the Curie couple). He was also part of the team that designed the first icebreaker.

Mendeleev was an internationally recognized figure, to the point of being nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1906.. However, the prize was awarded to Henri Moissan.

Other aspects that aroused his interest were the exploration and study of solar eclipses or research on fertilizers. Likewise, his study on liquids and their combinations would contribute to generate a concrete way of elaborating vodka, which gives it its characteristic 40 degrees of alcohol.

Personal life

Dimitri Mendeleev had a complicated life, not only professionally but also personally. He was forced by one of his sisters to marry, in 1862, Feozva Nikitichna Leschiova, with whom he had a stormy and difficult relationship. with Feozva Nikitichna Leschiova, with whom he had a stormy and difficult relationship and from whose relationship three children were born (one of whom died). However, nine years later they separated.

During this time, when he was already separated but not yet divorced, he fell in love with Anna Ivanovna Popova, a music student with whom he had a relationship. His still wife refused to give him a divorce initially, although she granted it four years later.

In 1882 he married Anna Ivanovna Popovain 1882, although the seven years required by law to remarry after his divorce had not yet elapsed. This would generate a great controversy and polemic in the Russian society of the time, being considered bigamy, but it was decided that the punishment would not correspond to the contracting parties but to the one who officiated the wedding. This last marriage was a happy one, and four more children were born of their relationship.

Death and legacy

Dimitri Mendeleev died in St. Petersburg at the age of 72, on February 2, 1907. His death is associated to the suffering of a flu, although it could also be associated to the supposed tuberculosis. may also be associated with the alleged tuberculosis he suffered in his youth.. It should also be noted that he suffered a considerable loss of vision, to the point that he was practically blind.

His death was a hard blow for science. However, despite the great relevance of his work, his death did not have a great impact on the Russia of that time, probably due to his liberal and reformist ideas, which did not fit in with the ideology of the system in which he lived.

His legacy and his extensive contribution to science is still valid today, being his systematization of the different elements object of study and having allowed the discovery of multiple elements with the passage of time. There is, in fact, an element called mendelevium in his honor.