Editing Dmitri Mendeleev (section)

==Later life==
[[File:Дмитрий Иванович Менделеев 7.jpg|thumb|left|Dmitri Mendeleev in 1890]]
[[File:Анна Ивановна Менделеева, урождённая Попова.png|thumb|Dmitri Mendeleev's second wife, Anna]]
In 1876, he became obsessed{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} with Anna Ivanovna Popova and began courting her; in 1881 he proposed to her and threatened suicide if she refused. His divorce from Leshcheva was finalized one month after he had married Popova (on 2 April)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gazeta.ua/index.php?id=157545&lang=ru |title=Менделеев обвенчался за взятку |publisher=Gazeta.ua |date=10 April 2007 |access-date=13 March 2010}}</ref> in early 1882. Even after the divorce, Mendeleev was technically a [[bigamy|bigamist]]; the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] required at least seven years before lawful remarriage. His divorce and the surrounding controversy contributed to his failure to be admitted to the Russian Academy of Sciences (despite his international fame by that time). His daughter from his second marriage, Lyubov, became the wife of the famous Russian poet [[Alexander Blok]]. His other children were son Vladimir (a sailor, he took part in the notable [[Eastern journey of Nicholas II|Eastern journey of Nicholas&nbsp;II]]) and daughter Olga, from his first marriage to Feozva, and son Ivan and twins from Anna.

Though Mendeleev was widely honored by scientific organizations all over Europe, including (in 1882) the [[Davy Medal]] from the [[Royal Society]] of London (which later also awarded him the [[Copley Medal]] in 1905),<ref name="EB1911"/> he resigned from Saint Petersburg University on 17 August 1890. He was elected a [[List of fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1892|Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1892]],<ref name="formemrs">{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316060617/https://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows/|archive-date=16 March 2015|url=https://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows/|publisher=[[Royal Society]]|location=London|title=Fellows of the Royal Society}}</ref> and in 1893 he was appointed director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures, a post which he occupied until his death.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Mendeléeff, Dmitri Ivanovich |volume=18 |page=115}}</ref>

Mendeleev also investigated the composition of [[petroleum]], and helped to found the first [[oil refinery]] in Russia. He recognized the importance of petroleum as a feedstock for [[petrochemical]]s. He is credited with a remark that burning petroleum as a fuel "would be akin to firing up a kitchen stove with bank notes".<ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BO9ocnho9P4C&pg=PA546 |title=Chemistry: The Molecular Science, Volume 1 |author1=John W. Moore |author2=Conrad L. Stanitski |author3=Peter C. Jurs |access-date=6 September 2011|isbn=978-0495115984 |year=2007 |publisher=Thomson Brooks/Cole }}</ref>

[[File:200 y Anniversary of Berlin Academy 1900.jpg|right|thumb|Mendeleev, [[Alfred Werner]], [[Adolf von Baeyer]], and other prominent chemists]]

Mendeleev was nominated for [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] for the last three years of his life, 1905, 1906 and 1907 in 9 nominations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=6171|title=Nomination Archive|date=21 May 2024 }}</ref>
In 1905, Mendeleev was elected a member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] and received three nominations. The following year he received four nominations and the [[Nobel Committee for Chemistry]] recommended to the Swedish Academy to award the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] for 1906 to Mendeleev for his discovery of the periodic system. He was also elected an International Member of the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Dmitry+Mendeleyev&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=17 January 2024 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> The Chemistry Section of the Swedish Academy supported this recommendation. The academy was then supposed to approve the committee's choice, as it has done in almost every case. Unexpectedly, at the full meeting of the academy, a dissenting member of the Nobel Committee, [[Peter Klason]], proposed the candidacy of [[Henri Moissan]] whom he favored. [[Svante Arrhenius]], although not a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, had a great deal of influence in the academy and also pressed for the rejection of Mendeleev, arguing that the periodic system was too old to acknowledge its discovery in 1906. According to the contemporaries, Arrhenius was motivated by the grudge he held against Mendeleev for his critique of Arrhenius's [[Acid-base reaction theories#Arrhenius definition|dissociation theory]]. After heated arguments, the majority of the academy chose Moissan by a margin of one vote.<ref>{{cite book |author=Gribbin, J |title=The Scientists: A History of Science Told Through the Lives of Its Greatest Inventors |publisher=Random House |location=New York |year=2002 |page=378 |isbn=978-0812967883|bibcode=2003shst.book.....G }}</ref> The two nominations of Mendeleev in 1907 were again frustrated by the absolute opposition of Arrhenius.<ref name="isbn0716731037">{{cite book |author=Friedman, Robert M. |title=The politics of excellence: behind the Nobel Prize in science |publisher=Times Books |location=New York |year=2001 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/politicsofexcell00robe/page/32 32–34] |isbn=978-0716731030 |url=https://archive.org/details/politicsofexcell00robe/page/32 }}</ref>

In 1907, Mendeleev died at the age of 72 in [[Saint Petersburg]] from [[influenza]], just 6 days short of his 73rd birthday. His last words were to his physician: "Doctor, you have science, I have faith," which is possibly a [[Jules Verne]] quote.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=s8xwDQAAQBAJ&q=You+have+science&pg=PT460 ''Last and Near-Last Words of the Famous, Infamous and Those In-Between''] By Joseph W. Lewis Jr. M.D.</ref>