Lisa meitner (Nov 7, 1878- Oct 27, 1968) SPOTLIGHT ON PHYSICIST Nuclear fission—splitting of the atom A discovery which changed our world

Facts and Achievements Meitner was born in Austria to Jewish parents, she was the third child out of eight. Meitner excelled in science and math as a child. Her parents made certain that all of their daughters obtained the same level of education as their sons by employing private tutors. 1901 - Meitner enrolled at the University of Vienna 1906 – Received a doctorate in physics in 1906, the second woman to do so. She then went to Berlin to study under Otto Hahn and Max Planck in 1907. Meitner worked with Hahn for nearly thirty years at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin. Together, with her physics knowledge and his chemistry expertise they discovered the protactinium isotope in 1918.

Facts and Achievements 1922- She discovered the Auger Effect, which is the emission process of electrons. 1926 - She becomes the first women to be a full physics professor at the University of Berlin. She commenced the nuclear physics research program which ultimately led to her co-discovery, in 1939, of nuclear fission. From 1924 to the mid 1930’s, Meitner and Hahn became very well-known across the world as highly rated scientific researchers. The duo was nominated ten consecutive years for the Nobel Prize during this time. 1938 - Austria was annexed by Germany, Meitner was forced to flee Germany for Sweden.

Facts and Achievements 1939 Jan - Hahn and chemist Fritz Strassmann executed experiments that isolated the data for nuclear fission. Hahn sends results to Meitner. 1939 Feb – Meitner and her nephew, physicist Otto Frisch published the physical explanation for the observations and named the process nuclear fission. The discovery led other scientists to prompt Albert Einstein to write President Franklin D. Roosevelt a warning letter, which led to the Manhattan Project.

Facts and Achievements Meitner and Frisch were the first to articulate a theory of how the nucleus of an atom could be split into smaller parts: uranium nuclei had split to form barium and krypton, accompanied by the ejection of several neutrons and a large amount of energy. They had discovered the reason that no stable elements beyond uranium (in atomic number) existed naturally; the electrical repulsion of so many protons overcame the strong nuclear force. Frisch and Meitner also first realized that Einstein's famous equation, E = mc2, explained the source of the tremendous releases of energy in nuclear fission, by the conversion of rest mass into kinetic energy, popularly described as the conversion of mass into energy. This procedure was explained in a 1939 landmark letter to the Nature journal where they used the term fission. These important results were confirmed throughout the world. Hahn received the Physics Nobel Prize in 1944 for his scientific research into fission; however, Meitner’s contributions were ignored.

Nuclear fission Nuclear fission is either a nuclear reaction or a radioactive decay process in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts (lighter nuclei). The fission process often produces free neutrons and gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactive decay. nuclear chain reaction releases energy at a controlled rate in a nuclear reactor or at a very rapid uncontrolled rate in a nuclear weapon.

Awards and recognition 1945 - Meitner became a Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences foreign member 1949 - Meitner was awarded the German Physics Society’s Max Planck Medal. 1966 she was awarded the Enrico Fermi Award, along with Hahn and Strassmann. This partly rectified the Nobel mistake where Meitner was never acknowledged for the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Otto Hahn "for his discovery of the fission of heavy atomic nuclei. 1997, Meitnerium, element 109 was named after her.

Quote Science makes people reach selflessly for truth and objectivity; it teaches people to accept reality, with wonder and admiration, not to mention the deep awe and joy that the natural order of things brings to the true scientist