The arrangement of elements by atomic number is credited to the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev and the German chemist Julius Lothar Meyer. Both scientists independently recognized the periodic patterns and similarities among the elements and proposed organizing them based on increasing atomic numbers.
However, it was Mendeleev who is generally recognized as the primary creator of the modern periodic table. In 1869, he published his periodic table, known as the Mendeleev periodic table, which arranged elements based on their atomic masses and properties. Mendeleev's table also left gaps for undiscovered elements, accurately predicting their properties. Over time, as the concept of atomic number was established, the periodic table was further refined to reflect the arrangement of elements by increasing atomic number.