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Lise Meitner
1878–1968 · Physicist
An Austrian-Swedish physicist central to the discovery and explanation of nuclear fission, whose contribution was overlooked by the Nobel Prize committee.
“I will have nothing to do with a bomb.”
Why is this scientist famous?
Made crucial contributions to the discovery of nuclear fission and, with Otto Frisch, provided its physical explanation.
Meitner spent decades investigating radioactivity and nuclear physics. After Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann found unexpected barium among the products of neutron-bombarded uranium, Meitner and her nephew Otto Frisch explained that the uranium nucleus had split and calculated the enormous energy released. Her work was central to understanding nuclear fission.
Lise's story
Early Life
Born in 1878 in Vienna, Meitner was one of the first women allowed to attend university in Austria. She earned her doctorate in physics in 1906 — only the second woman to do so at the University of Vienna. Women were not yet fully accepted in science, and she would face discrimination throughout her career.
The Berlin Years
Meitner moved to Berlin to work with Max Planck and began a 30-year collaboration with chemist Otto Hahn. For years she worked in a converted woodshop because women were not allowed in the main laboratory. Together they discovered several new isotopes and studied radioactive decay.
The Discovery of Fission
In 1938, after Nazi Germany annexed Austria, Meitner fled to Sweden because of her Jewish ancestry. She remained in correspondence with her longtime collaborator Otto Hahn. In Berlin, Hahn and Fritz Strassmann found that neutron-bombarded uranium produced barium, an unexpectedly light element. Hahn asked Meitner to help explain the result. During a meeting with her nephew Otto Frisch in Sweden, Meitner realised that the uranium nucleus could split into smaller nuclei. Meitner and Frisch calculated the energy released and published the physical explanation of the process in 1939. Frisch introduced the term 'fission' for the phenomenon.
The Nobel Snub
Otto Hahn received the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, announced in 1945, for the discovery of nuclear fission. Meitner's contribution to the work and her physical explanation with Otto Frisch were not recognised by the Nobel committee. Historians and scientific institutions have since given much greater recognition to her role. Meitner refused invitations to join the American atomic-bomb programme and later said, 'I will have nothing to do with a bomb.'
What did they discover?
Nuclear Fission
Participated in the uranium research programme that led to the discovery of fission and, with Otto Frisch, provided the physical explanation for Hahn and Strassmann's experimental results.
Protactinium
With Otto Hahn, identified the long-lived isotope of protactinium in work published in 1918.
Independent Work on the Auger Effect
In 1922, Meitner independently described a radiationless atomic-electron process that later became widely known as the Auger effect.
Amazing facts
She was excluded from the Nobel Prize for fission despite providing the theoretical explanation — the prize went to her male partner Otto Hahn.
In 1922, Meitner independently described the electron-emission process later widely known as the Auger effect.
Meitner escaped Nazi Germany in 1938 and continued her nuclear research in Sweden.
She refused to work on the Manhattan Project, saying "I will have nothing to do with a bomb."
Element 109, meitnerium (Mt), was named in her honour in 1997.
For years she had to work in a basement woodshop because women weren't allowed in the main lab.
Timeline
Born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary on November 7
Earned her PhD in physics from the University of Vienna
Moved to Berlin and began collaboration with Otto Hahn
With Otto Hahn, identified the long-lived isotope of protactinium
Became the first female physics professor in Germany
Fled Nazi Germany to Sweden after the Anschluss
Otto Hahn received the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for nuclear fission; Meitner was not included
Died in Cambridge, England on October 27, age 89
Element 109 was named Meitnerium in her honour
With Otto Frisch, physically explained the nuclear-fission results obtained by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann
Awards & honours
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