Mendelevium is a metal of the actinide series in group IIIb of the periodic table .
The ninth transuranium element to be discovered, it is named for the Russian chemist Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev . The symbol Mv was used at first, but it was changed to Md in 1963. Sixteen isotopes of mendelevium are known. This technique of producing and detecting single atoms has become the standard for the discovery of the elements beyond mendelevium in the periodic table. Little is known of the properties of this element, since its isotopes are unstable and difficult to produce.