Dmitri Mendeleev

About Dmitri Mendeleev

Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist born in 1834, secured his high historical standing, ranked #259 by the Pantheon project, primarily through his revolutionary work on the Periodic Table of Elements. His key contribution was articulating the Periodic Law, which stated that the properties of elements are a periodic function of their atomic weights. This allowed him not only to systematize the 63 elements known at the time but, critically, to predict the existence and properties of elements yet to be discovered, solidifying his foundational role in modern chemistry.

Mendeleev’s historical importance contrasts somewhat with his current internet visibility. With an HPI Rank of #259, he ranks significantly higher than figures like Yasser Arafat (#566) or the 14th Dalai Lama (#661). However, Mendeleev garnered only 388K Wikipedia views in 2025, while Arafat and the Dalai Lama each received 1.5M and 1.9M views, respectively. This disparity shows an attention gap where figures from more recent political or religious spheres command significantly greater contemporary online traffic despite lower overall historical influence rankings.

Further analysis suggests a modest decline in engagement for the chemist; his 2025 views showed a year-over-year change of -4.6%, and his momentum, comparing Q1 to Q3, dropped by 35%. Despite this slight retraction, his 1x Attention Gap suggests that, relative to his immense, enduring scientific impact, his online presence is not drastically over- or under-represented when contrasted with the general distribution of historical figures' attention.