Lise Meitner was born in Vienna, Austria in 1878. She attended
as much school as possible by the time she was 13. The societal norms
during that time period prevented her from going to college. When
she was 23 though she was accepted to the University of Vienna and continued
her education there. Lise excelled in math and physics, specifically
analytical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, elasticity and hydrodynamics,
acoustics, optics, thermodynamics and kinetic theory. She learned
much from theoretical physicist Ludwig Boltzmann. He held many beliefs,
and theorized that atoms were divisible. Lise finished her undergraduate
studies and began her doctorate in 1905. In 1906, she became the first
woman to receive a doctorate in physics at the University of Vienna.
As a result of her research during this period, she decided to attempt
a career of research in the field. The death of her mentor and friend
Boltzmann motivated her greatly to succeed. Meitner discovered she
was interested in the field of radioactive elements, and continued some
of Marie Curie’s research in alpha particles and radioactive energy.
Her accomplishments during this time included discovering a method of proving
that the particles did indeed scatter, explaining how conversion electrons
were produced when gamma ray energy was used to eject orbital electrons,
and providing the first description of the origin of auger electrons (outer-shell
orbital electrons ejected from the atom when they absorbed the energy released
by other electrons falling to lower energy levels). In 1907 she moved
to Berlin, the mecca of theoretical physics, where she was introduced to
Einstein and Max Plank, the father of the quantum. More important, she
met Otto Hahn, who became her closest collaborator and a valued friend.
They were an interdisciplinary yin and yang: Hahn, the chemist, Meitner,
the physicist. While he was methodical, she was bold. Together, in 1917,
they discovered a new element, protactinium. Despite the terrible
gender discriminations of the time, Meitner's deft abilities could not
be ignored. Still in her thirties, she was given her own physics
section in the prestigious Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry.
In 1934 she convinced Hahn to join with her once again to investigate
the nucleus of the atom, and to seek elements beyond uranium, then the
heaviest atom known. They started their research by bombarding uranium
with neutrons. This produced a scattered mess of radioactive particles
that neither scientist could identify. It took the combined work
of Hahn and Meitner four years to sort out the separate particles. Hahn's
job as a chemist was to sort out and process of the elements, and Meitner's
was to explain the nuclear processes using her physics knowledge. In 1938
Meitner, who was Jewish, was forced to flee Germany and the reach of Hitler’s
anti-Semitic crusades. She continued to do research and advise Hahn
through letters. To their amazement, the uranium reaction consisted
of lighter particles. This confounded Hahn, so he wrote to Meitner
asking if she could make any sense of this discovery. It only took
a few days for Lise, with the help of her nephew, to work out a model for
nuclear fission. Although Otto Hahn got the Nobel Prize and never
mention Lise as a contributor to any of his works, to this day she is honored
as the founder of nuclear fission reactions. Some of many honors
given to her to this date include: in 1992, element 109 was named Meitnerium
in her honor; she was elected as a foreign member of the Swedish Academy
of Science in 1945; named Foreign Member by the Royal Soceity of London;
Awarded Leibniz Medal by the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1924; Awarded
the Lieben Prize by the Vienna Academy of Sciences in 1925; Awarded the
Prize for Science and Art by the City of Vienna in 1947; Awarded the Max
Planck Medal by the German Physics Society in 1949; Member of the Ordre
pour le Merite, Civilian Class (West Germany), 1957; Given the Schlozer
Medal by the University of Göttingen in 1962; Awarded the Enrico
Fermi Prize by the Atomic Energy Commission along with Otto Hahn in 1966;
Member of the Academies of Berlin, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Goettingen,
Halle, Oslo, Stockholm, and Vienna; Awarded Honorary doctorates from Adelphi
College, University of Rochester, Rutgers University, Smith College, and
the University of Stockholm; Awarded the Otto Hahn Prize, 1954.
Sources
http://mnmn.essortment.com/lisemeitner_rqob.htm
Lise Meitner
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Lise Meitner Outline
Copyright © James McComish 1998.
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The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
Copyright © 2000, Columbia University Press.
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Lise Meitner and the Discovery of Nuclear Fission
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