Lise Meitner

Lise Meitner was an Austrian-Swedish physicist whose theoretical explanation of nuclear fission helped establish the process. The 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery went solely to Otto Hahn.

Otto Hahn: Otto Hahn was a German chemist who discovered nuclear fission experimentally with Fritz Strassmann. Meitner and Hahn collaborated for decades; Hahn’s fission experiments prompted her theoretical explanation.
Nuclear fission: Nuclear fission is the splitting of a heavy atomic nucleus into lighter nuclei, often releasing neutrons and energy. This is the process Meitner and Frisch explained after Hahn and Strassmann’s experiments.
University of Vienna: The University of Vienna is a public research university founded in 1365 in Vienna, Austria. Meitner studied physics there and earned her doctorate in 1906.
1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: The 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Otto Hahn for his discovery of the fission of heavy atomic nuclei. The prize recognized Hahn alone, although Meitner’s theoretical interpretation helped explain the discovery.
Fritz Strassmann: Fritz Strassmann was a German chemist who, with Otto Hahn, identified barium among uranium’s neutron-irradiation products. His chemical analysis supplied the crucial experimental evidence Meitner interpreted as fission.
Liquid-drop model: The liquid-drop model treats an atomic nucleus as a charged drop whose surface tension and electrical repulsion shape its stability. Meitner used this model to reason that a uranium nucleus could deform and divide.
Berlin-Dahlem: Berlin-Dahlem is a district of Berlin that became a center for German scientific institutes in the early twentieth century. Meitner conducted much of her research with Hahn at Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry.
Manhattan Project: The Manhattan Project was the United States-led program that developed the first nuclear weapons during World War II. Meitner declined an invitation to join the project, despite the practical importance of fission to its work.
Niels Bohr: Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who developed the model of the atomic nucleus as a liquid drop. Meitner and her nephew Otto Frisch discussed their fission interpretation with Bohr in 1939.
Nuclear binding energy: Nuclear binding energy is the energy required to separate a nucleus into its constituent protons and neutrons. The greater binding energy per nucleon of fission products explains the energy released in the split.

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