The beginnings in Vienna
Lise was born on November 7, 1878 in Vienna, in a bourgeois family of Jewish origin. Her father, Philipp Meitner, was a lawyer and chess teacher. Her mother, Hedwig Skovran, was a talented hobbyist musician. Like for all the Austrian girls of that time, Lise’s formal education ended when she was 14 years old. Then her father recommended her to study French in order to secure her future.
After Lise completed such studies, she could dedicate herself to what she was really passionate about: science. In October 1901 she managed to enroll at the University of Vienna. She was 22 years old and decided to specialize in physics. Five years later, she became the second female doctor at the University of Vienna.
Breaking the glass ceiling in Berlin
In 1907 Lise moved to Berlin, convinced that she could not pursue a scientific career in Vienna. In Berlin she met the young chemist Otto Hahn, whom she decided to associate herself to deepen in the studies of natural radioactivity. It was a very advantageous union, indeed Otto had studied radioactivity with Rutherford, he was young and approachable and did not mind working with women.
The collaboration between Otto and Lise was very fruitful. Together they discovered a new chemical element, the protactinium. Thanks to this achievement, Lise was able to advance in her career, becoming head of the Physics Department at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, Senior Lecturer at the University of Berlin and, finally, she was the first woman to become a full professor of physics in Germany.
From uranium to the periodic table
Because of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, Lise’s life became complicated and in 1938, when she was 60, she was forced to run away from Germany. It was right in the middle of a research that would change the destiny of the humankind… That one leading to the discovery of the uranium fission!
Even though Lise’s role was crucial in the experiments, only Otto was awarded with the Nobel Prize for the discovery of nuclear fission. Lise was nominated 48 times to the Nobel Prize, but she never received it. Nevertheless, history reserved her a higher honour: she is the only woman scientist who names exclusively an element of the periodic table, the meitnerium.
time line
Childhood and education in Vienna
Lise was born in Vienna on November 7, 1878. The education that she received thanks to the support of her family made possible for her to study at university. In 1906 she became the second woman to earn a doctoral degree in physics at the University of Vienna.
From Vienna to Berlin
After completing her PhD, Meitner wrote to Marie Curie asking for a position in her laboratory, but there was no room for her there. So she decided to move to Berlin to deepen her knowledge in radioactivity. There she met her big friend and colleague Otto Hahn.
The Discovery of fission
After almost thirty years of close collaboration, Lise and Otto culminated their carriers with the discovery of nuclear fission. The situation was complicated: running away from the Nazi Germany, Lise just moved to Sweden and Otto was afraid to be accused of collaborating with a Jewish woman.
The Nobel Prize
In 1944 Otto was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Lise was not. The Nobel Committee justified: she was not in Berlin when Hahn and Strassmann performed the experiments. In reality: Lise was the intellectual leader of the research group since she established it in 1934.
The atomic bomb
On August 6, 1945, the United States throw the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Lise, on vacations in the countryside, got to know it the day after. Stunned, she walked alone during five hours. She was the only scientist who refused to participate in the Manhattan project.
The last years
Lise Meitner died in Cambridge on October 27, 1968 at the age of 89. She was buried in a little village of Hampshire, Bramley. The inscription on her headstone reads: “Lise Meitner: a physicist who never lost her humanity”.
