Dmitri Mendeleev (1834–1907)
16 February 2024
Mendelevium is a radioactive, synthetic chemical element in the actinide series with atomic number 101 and the symbol Md. It has no uses outside of pure research. It was first synthesized at the University of California Berkeley by a team led by Stanley G. Thompson that included Albert Ghiorso, Glenn T. Seaborg, Gregory Robert Choppin, and Bernard G. Harvey. The element is named for Dmitri Mendeleev, the chemist who formulated the Periodic Law and was instrumental in developing the periodic table of the elements.
The discovery was announced at a meeting of the American Physical Society in May 1955, and the 14 May issue of Science News-Letter reported the discovery:
Dr. Ghiorso said element 101 has been given the name mendelevium (chemical symbol Mv), in honor of the great 19th century Russian chemist, whose periodic system of the elements is known to every student of high school chemistry. Mendeleev's system has been the key to the discovery of elements for nearly a century.
The team published the details of the discovery in the June 1955 issue of Physical Review:
We would like to suggest the name mendelevium, symbol Mv, for the new element in recognition of the pioneering role of the great Russian chemist, Dmitri Mendeleev, who was the first to use the periodic system of the elements to predict the chemical properties of undiscovered elements, a principle which has been the key to the discovery of the last seven transuranium (actinide) elements.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) officially approved the name in 1997 but changed the chemical symbol to Md from the original suggestion of Mv.
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Sources:
“Element 101 Discovered.” Science News-Letter, 67.20, 14 May 1955, 307. JSTOR.
Ghiorso, A., et al. “New Element Mendelevium, Atomic Number 101” (18 April 1955). Physical Review, 98, June 1955, 1518–19 at 1519. American Physical Society: Physical Review Journals Archive. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRev.98.1518.
Miśkowiec, Pawel. “Name Game: The Naming History of the Chemical Elements—Part 3—Rivalry of Scientists in the Twentieth Century.” Foundations of Chemistry, 12 November 2022. DOI: 10.1007/s10698-022-09452-9.
“Names and Symbols of the Transfermium Elements (IUPAC Recommendations 1997)” Pure and Applied Chemistry, 68.12, December 1997, 2471–73 at 2473. DOI: 10.1351/pac199769122471.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2001, s.v. mendelevium, n.
Photo credit: unknown photographer, before 1907. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.