Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev Essay Research Paper Dmitri

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev Essay, Research Paper

Dmitri Mendeleev was one of the most famous modern-day scientists of all time who contributed greatly to the world’s fields of science, technology, and politics. He helped modernize the world and set it farther ahead into the future. Mendeleev also made studying chemistry easier, by creating a table with the elements and the atomic weights of them put in order by their properties.

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was born in Tobolsk, Siberia, on February 7, 1834. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy was the son of Maria Dmitrievna Korniliev and Ivan Pavlovitch Mendeleev and the youngest of 14 children. Dmitri’s father, Ivan died when Dmitri was still very young and Dmitri’s mother, Maria was left to support her large family. Maria needed money to support all her children, so she took over managing her family’s glass factory in Aremziansk. The family had to pack up and move there.

Maria favored Dmitri because he was the youngest child and started saving money to put him through college when he had still been quite young. As a child, Dmitri spent many hours in his mother’s factory talking to the workers. The chemist there taught him about the concepts behind glass making and the glass blower taught him about the art of glass making. Another large influence in Dmitri’s life had been his sister, Olga’s, husband, Bessargin. Bessargin had been banished to Siberia because of his political beliefs as a Russian Decembrist, (Decembrists, or Dekabrists as they were known in Russia, were a group of literary men who led a revolution in Russia in 1825.), so he spent most of his time teaching Dmitri the science of the day. From these people, Dmitri grew up with three key thoughts:

“Everything in the world is science,” from Bessargin.

“Everything in the world is art,” from Timofei the glass blower.

“Everything in the world is love,” from Maria his mother. (Dictionary of Scientific Biography. p. 291.)

As Dmitri grew older, it became apparent to everyone that Dmitri understood complex topics better than others did. When Dmitri turned 14 and entered school in Tobolsk, a second major family tragedy occurred-his mother’s glass factory burned down to the ground. The family had no money to rebuild the factory, except for the money that Dmitri’s mother had saved for him to attend a university. Maria wasn’t about to give up her dreams that she had for her son and she knew that Dmitri’s only hope to go on to school was to win a scholarship. Maria constantly pushed Dmitri to improve his grades and prepare for his entrance exams.

At a very young age, Dmitri had already known that he wanted to study science and decided to pay very little attention in classes such as Latin and history. He believed that these topics were a waste of time and he wouldn’t need him in his career as a scientist. After much pleading from his mother and Bessargin, Dmitri passed his exams and prepared to enter the university.

In 1849, Maria packed up her life and family and moved to Moscow, because there was nothing left for them in Aremziansk anymore. They settled in a city with a considerable amount of political unrest, which meant that the universities there were very reluctant to accept anyone from outside of Moscow. Dmitri was rejected. Maria still had hope for him, so she then took her family and moved to St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg was in the same state as Moscow, but the family found an old friend of Dmitri’s father working at the Pedagogical Institute, his father’s old school. After a little persuasion, Dmitri was allowed to take the exams and passed with grades that landed him a full scholarship. Dmitri entered the university’s science teacher training program in the fall of 1850.

Maria died very soon after Dmitri was accepted to the university and so did his sister, Elizabeth. Both died due to tuberculosis. Dmitri was left alone to face his work at the university and he immersed himself in it. His studies progressed rapidly for three years, until he became ill and was bedridden for one year. During this year, Dmitri continued his studies by having professors and fellow students visit him and give him assignments, etc. Dmitri managed to graduate on time and was awarded the medal of excellence for being the first in his class.

Dmitri’s illness did not improve and the doctor’s told him that he would have a maximum of two years left to live if he moved to a warmer climate. Dmitri had many goals for his future, so trying to extend his life as long as possible, he moved to Simferopol in the Crimean Peninsula near the Black Sea in 1855. At 21 years of age, Dmitri became the chief science master at the local school. This move to the south highly improved his condition and began regaining health to the point where doctors could no longer find any signs of disease in his body.

In 1856, Dmitri returned to St. Petersburg to defend his master’s thesis: “Research and Theories on Expansion of Substances Due to Heat.” After this, Dmitri focused his career on teaching and research. “Dmitri was devoted to two things: First, his work and his students. Second, his country and his fellow men. His first love led him to write many books and to organize the periodic table, while the other gave rise to the studies of chemical technology and the organization of Russia’s industries, agriculture,