THE STORY OF THE LONG-HAIRED BEARDED RUSSIAN CHEMIST AND HOW HE CONTRIBUTED TO ONE OF THE MOST USEFUL TOOLS IN CHEMISTRY BY: Maram Tayeh On February 8, 1834, Dmitri Mendeleev was born to a blind father (Ivan mendeleev ) and a mother that worked at a glass factory (Mariya Kornileva). After the factory burned down in 1848, the family moved to St. Petersburg. In 1855, mendeleev graduated from the main pedagogical institute in ST. petersburg. after graduating , dmitri mendeleev taught i n the russian citie s of simferopol and odesa . After teaching, mendeleev returned to st. petersburg to earn his masters degree. mendeleev finished his studies abroad at the university of heidelberg. Dmitri mendeleev , a russian chemisT, has had major contributions in the field of chemistry. Not only was mendeleev a chemist, but he was also a teacher. he decided to focus mainly on his chemical researches afteR winning an award to go to western europe. Dmitri mendeleev first became exposed to the chemical elements while he was working in heidelberg university with robert bunsen (inventor of the bunsen burner). bunsen discovered the elemen T cesium using chemical spectroscopy , a method he later introduced to mendeleev. While writing his second book The principles of chemistry , dmitri mendeleev wondered what the elements would reveal to him if he organized them in a certain way. WHAT many people do not know is that dmitri mendeleev actually discovered the Patterns of the elements....in his sleep! firstly he wrote down the names of the known 65 elements on cards. then, he wrote down the fundamental properties of each element including the atomic mass. Mendeleev moved the cards around for hours trying to figure out in what order the elements should be placed in. while organizing the cards, mendeleev fell asleep....i mean who wouldn't be exhausted using all that brain power for hours? mendeleev later wrote, "in a dream i saw a table where all the elements fall into place as required. awakening, i immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper". two weeks later, he published the relation between the properties and atomic weights of the elements and the periodic table had been released to the scientific world.