MEITNER, LISE

MEITNER, LISE (1878–1968), physicist and one of the small group responsible for the discovery of atomic fission. Born in Vienna, she moved to Berlin in 1917 and there joined the distinguished chemist Otto Hahn, with whom she worked in collaboration, researching into radioactive substances. Lise Meitner was one of the first women to become a professor at the University of Berlin (1926). From 1917 she was for over 20 years head of the physics department in the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for chemistry in Berlin. After the Anschluss in 1938, she left Germany and settled in Stockholm, working on the staff of the Nobel Institute. There she received a letter from Hahn describing his discovery with Fritz Strassmann that, when a uranium atom was disintegrated by a neutron, an atom of barium was thereby produced. While holidaying near Gothenburg in December 1938, she discussed this with her nephew, otto frisch , who was working in Denmark with niels bohr . The two physicists immediately realized the significance of Hahn's work, which meant that the uranium atom was split into roughly equal parts, accompanied by a tremendous release of energy. Frisch called this "fission," a term borrowed from biology. Lise Meitner visited the United States after 1945, but returned to Sweden and became a citizen in 1949. Both before and after World War II she received many honors. She eventually retired to Cambridge, England, where she died. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: New York Times (Oct. 28, 1968); E. Yost, in: Science Digest (May 1962), 83–88. (Maurice Goldsmith)