[1] While her family did not fully understand her interest in science, they did not discourage her, and she would read professional literature and conduct simple experiments at home.

[2] Julia Lermontova initially wanted to study medicine, but soon discovered she could not stand the sight of skeletons or bear the poverty of her patients.

[2] In 1874 she finished her dissertation "Zur Kenntniss der Methylenverbindungen"[6] (which was about the analysis of methyl compounds), and that fall earned her diploma as a Doctor of Chemistry from the University of Göttingen.

[4] After completing her education, she returned to Russia, and began working in Vladimir Markovnikov's laboratory at the University of Moscow.

[2] In 1877, after the death of her father, she moved to Moscow with her family, and began working in Markovnikov's laboratory, in oil research.

[2] At the January 1878 conference of the Russian Chemical Society, A. P. Eltekov reported on a new method of synthesizing hydrocarbons of the formula CnH2n, which Butlerov noted that many of these experiments had been previously conducted by Lermontova.

[3] This research later became of value when highly branched hydrocarbon synthesis was further studied for its industrial production and use for some types of motor fuels.

[2] In the spring of 1889, she became seriously ill with double pneumonia, and that fall traveled to Stockholm to visit Sofia Kovalevskaya.