Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907) is a Russian polymath scientist, Professor, a member of the Academy of Sciences, the author of fundamental researches in physics, metrology, aeronautics, meteorology, agriculture, economics, public education that were closely connected to needs of the economic development of Russia. He left behind more than 500 works, including the periodic table or the Mendeleev’s table.
Dmitry Ivanovich was the seventeenth child in the family of the headmaster of the Tobolsk gymnasium.
After graduating from the St. Petersburg Lead Pedagogical Institute (with honours) he taught at the Simferopol Gymnasium (where he met N. I. Pirogov), then at the Richelieu Lyceum in Odessa. In 1856, he defended the thesis and obtained the Master’s degree in chemistry. Further on, he worked at St. Petersburg Imperial University at the chemistry department and at Heidelberg University in Germany.
The first University in Siberia and Polytechnic Institute in Kiev were opened due to D. I. Mendeleev. He founded the Leading Board of Weights and Measures as well as the Chemical Society, the first in Russian Empire.
In the summer of 1899, the commission for examination of critical situation of the Ural industry under tenure of D. I. Mendeleev made a scientific and research expedition to industrial and mining centres of Ural including the east of Orenburg Governorate. The aims of the expedition were to research and learn the growth prospects of the Ural metallurgical, mining and timber industries.