Imagine spending hours in a laboratory just to have your efforts be forgotten in the name of men like Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann. This is the story of Lisa Meitner, an Austrian physicist, whose contributions led to the discovery of nuclear fission, the power behind nuclear weapons. Lisa’s accomplishment was not recognized until two decades after her death, when she was not singly but jointly awarded the Enrico Fermi Award in 1966 along with Hahn and Strassman. Whereas, Otto Hahn won the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry because of his discovery of nuclear fission. In order to shed some light on the brilliant and powerful woman, Meitner was, allow me to tell her story. 

 The Early Life and Education of Lisa Meitner 

Lisa Meitner was born on November 7, 1878, in Vienna, Austria.  Her father was a firm believer in women’s education and hired a private tutor for Lisa when she was 14 after showing immense promise in Mathematics. During this time, Austrian girls were not allowed to attend the same high school as boys, so Meitner focused her energy on passing the University of Vienna’s difficult entrance exam. Of course, she was admitted and became the first woman admitted to the university’s physicals lectures and laboratory at just 23 years old! She was also the second woman to receive a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Vienna. During her time completing this, she met Max Planck, the father of the quantum theory.  In 1907, Planck invited Lise Meitner to Berlin for post-doctoral study and research. In 1912, Planck appointed her as his assistant. Although being an assistant was considered a low rank, she was the first female scientific assistant in Prussia. She soon climbed the ranks and by 1926, Lisa was the first female professor of physics in Germany.

Working During Nazi Rule: 

In 1938  Austria was annexed by Germany, making it part of Nazi Germany. Since Lisa came from a Jewish family, she was forced to flee  Germany for Sweden. Her physicist friends helped sneak her out, and she continued her work in Sweden at the Nobel Institute for Experimental Physics. As a woman, she was often discriminated against and landed an unpaid research position at this institute. In her letters, she often described her loneliness and her financial struggles, claiming she was surviving on bread and coffee. 

“My salary is such that I can pay for my room, food, and small daily expenses like bus fare, postage, etc., only by being very thrifty…Stockholm is very expensive, and I dare not think of what might happen if I should become sick.”  – a quote from Lisa Meitner’s letters to Otto Hahn 

Meitner’s Contributions to Nuclear Fission: 

It all started when an Italian scientist, Enrico Fermi discovered that when a nuclear reaction occurred, the targeted nucleus did not change dramatically. Instead, it would usually emit a proton or an alpha particle.  Using this, he found when a nuclear reaction occured on uranium, new beta emitters without the chemical properties of uranium formed. Thus, he suggested creating new elements beyond uranium. Meitner was fascinated and implemented several experiences of her own to confirm it. However, she needed an expert radiochemist, which is where Otto Hahn enters the picture. The two of them, along with Fritzstrassman, started a legendary collaboration. 

 Fast forward to 1938, Hahn and Strassman had discovered something peculiar in Berlin: When uranium was bombarded with neutrons, it split into lighter elements, including barium, rather than absorbing the neutrons and forming a new element. The two of them wrote to Meitner, who was perplexed. She recruited her nephew, Otto Robert Frisch, to help. Together, they were able to prove that the uranium nucleus could be split. They proved that the mass of the two new atoms added together would be less than that of the original atom and that some of the mass would be used up.  The energy given off by the two new atoms would repel them, which would overcome the surface tension that held the original atom together. During this process, a massive amount of energy was released. By this experiment, she essentially disproved a lot of speculation regarding the bombardment of neutrons. Essentially, most scientists thought the Uranium nucleus was simply capturing the neutrons, which would then be converted to protons. This was what was believed to transform uranium into the larger elements. However, Meitner disproved this by proving that nuclei were able to split. Meitner and her nephew later published an article naming this process “nuclear fission”. 

    Stuck Behind the Male Shadow: 

I just told you, just how amazing of a role Meitner played. But why exactly wasn’t she given credit? The sad truth is that Meitner was both Jewish and a woman. Despite being an exile in Sweden, Meitner, Hahn, and Strassman communicated regularly, especially with their Barium findings. When it was time to publish, Hahn could not put her name because it would cost him his career in Germany. However, in his findings, he did not provide an explanation of the uranium nucleus splitting, while Meitner’s publication, which was published weeks later, did. Still, the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to Hahn for “ the discovery of the fission of heavy nuclei”, even though it was Meitner who used the term first. 

Works Cited

Atomic Archive. “Lise Meitner | Biographies.” Www.atomicarchive.com, 2023, www.atomicarchive.com/resources/biographies/meitner.html.

Rife, Patricia. “Lise  Meitner | Jewish Women’s Archive.” Jwa.org, 2009, jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/meitner-lise.

Steinberg, Ellis P. “Nuclear Fission.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 21 Dec. 2018, www.britannica.com/science/nuclear-fission.

“The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1944.” NobelPrize.org, www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1944/summary/.

“Unveiling the Hidden Legacy of Lise Meitner and Why She Never Won the Nobel Prize.” The Economic Times, 2 Oct. 2023, economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/new-updates/unveiling-the-hidden-legacy-of-lise-meitner-and-why-she-never-won-the-nobel-prize/articleshow/104103468.cms?from=mdr.

“Women in Radiation History: Lise Meitner.” Www.epa.gov, 7 Jan. 2021, www.epa.gov/radtown/women-radiation-history-lise-meitner.