Contents
Lise Meitner
Helping explain nuclear fission after decades of research into radioactivity.
Protactinium · Nuclear fission
- Born
- November 1878
- Birthplace
- Vienna, Austria
- Died
- 27 October 1968
More people
Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner was an Austrian-born physicist whose work helped establish how an atomic nucleus could split.
Early life
Education
Pursued physics despite restrictions on women’s education.
Vienna
Earned a doctorate before moving to Berlin.
Career
- 1907 onward
Berlin research
Worked with Otto Hahn on radioactivity.
- 1938
Exile
Escaped Nazi Germany and continued work in Sweden.
- 1938–1939
Fission explanation
Interpreted the results with Otto Frisch.
Contributions
Protactinium
Helped identify a long-lived isotope.
Nuclear fission
Co-authored its physical explanation.
Fermi Award
Shared recognition with Hahn and Fritz Strassmann.
Beyond physics
Exclusion
Was not included in the chemistry Nobel awarded to Hahn.
Later life
Retired to Britain, where she had family.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Photo: Harris & Ewing. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
