Lise Meitner was a significant physicist. She was born on November 7, 1878. Meitner was born in Vienna, Austria to a Jewish family. Although born into a Jewish family, Meitner converted to the Protestant religion. Despite this conversion, it did not help her during Hitler’s invasion, which influenced her life in the future. Her given name was Elise but she shortened it to Lise. Her parents were Phillip Meitner and Hedwig Skovran Meitner. Lise Meitner’s family was pretty well-off. Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a musician. In total, there were eight children in Meitner’s family, she was the third of eight children. Her childhood was spent more leisurely as she read books for fun and playing piano at home. She didn’t attend school in preparation for college due to the fact that it was not the social norms for women to go to school, in fact, most females weren’t even allowed. Instead, Meitner’s father had Lise and her sisters privately tutored in order for them to have the same education as his sons. In Meitner’s early years she excelled in mathematics. There was no specific event that brought Lise Meitner to want to study science besides the fact that she wanted to. However, before beginning college Meitner was advised by her father to earn a teaching degree so she could be independent in her education. Meitner then began to get qualified in teaching French, which she completed in 1899. Her father encouraged her to get into the University by hiring a tutor to prepare Meitner for the college entrance exam for the University of Vienna. She ended up passing the exam and being admitted to the University of Vienna in 1901. She was the first woman to be admitted into the University of Vienna’s physics lectures. Meitner had a multitude of physics teachers during her time studying in Vienna. Her main teacher was Ludwig Boltzmann, he was highly respected by Meitner. In 1906, Meitner graduated from the University of Vienna with a Ph.D. in physics, the second woman to have ever earned a Ph.D. in physics at Vienna. Meitner could not find any research work following her graduation. Meitner instead began teaching high school physics. Eventually, an opportunity opened up for Meitner. She was invited by Max Planck to come to the University of Berlin to attend his lectures and do research work, which was out of the ordinary because Planck was not usually open to having women attend his lecture. On the downside, the Berlin Institute of Chemistry did not pay Meitner for her work and did not allow her to be in the laboratories because at the time, it was not believed that women belonged in the laboratories. Meitner had enough determination in her that, despite being unpaid and not allowed in the labs, she went to Berlin to continue her studies and research. Meitner wanted to study radioactivity, which is a combination of physics and chemistry, at the University of Berlin. At the University many of the physics scientists were kind and welcoming. The chemists, on the other hand, did not welcome her as warmly as the physicists. Eventually she was partnered with a chemist named Otto Hahn. The two bonded and connected easily being around the same age. They worked long hours together that created a strong friendship and great partnership that would last for about 30 years. This partnership was the beginning of Meitner’s scientific career full of new discoveries. Lise Meitner never got married or had any children. She mainly enjoyed going on long walks and going to concerts to listen to music. Nearing the end of her life, Lise moved to Cambridge to be with her nephew Otto Frisch and his family. She died in Cambridge at age 89 on October 27, 1968.
The beginning of Meitner’s significant scientific discoveries started when she started work with Otto Hahn at the University of Berlin. Otto Hahn was her main partner throughout her career. At the beginning of their partnership, they worked together in a small carpenter’s room due to the fact that Meitner was not allowed in the labs. One of Meitner’s first major discoveries was her discovery of new radioisotope for the element actinium. She and Hahn published papers on their discovery in 1908. In 1909, Meitner published her own papers on beta radiation. Also in 1909, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner discovered the process of radioactive recoil. Radioactive recoil occurs when an atom’s nucleus fires an alpha particle. The positively charged nucleus will then recoil and can be attracted to a negatively charged electrode. Together, they also discovered that, with radioactive recoil, they can produce very highly purified elements. In 1912, Meitner was offered a paid position as an assistant by Planck. Later that same year in October, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry opened and both Hahn and Meitner worked there. She was eventually paid to work at the Institute within a year of starting. After Germany entered World War I, Meitner put a pause on her research work for two years to volunteer her time doing X-ray work for soldier who were fighting in the war. In 1916, Meitner returned to her work. Meitner and Hahn came out with a new discovery shortly after her return from volunteering for World War I soldiers. In 1917, Meitner and Hahn discovered an isotope for the element Protactinium. The isotope was called 231-Protactinium. This discovery was highly significant because previously discovered isotopes of Protactinium had very short lifespans, which made it difficult for scientists to study the properties and characteristics. Meitner and Hahn discovered an isotope with a half life of 32,000 years. This extended time frame made it much easier for scientists to study the element’s properties and characteristics. Meitner’s discover came to be very rewarding for her. She was award the Berlin Academy’s Leibniz medal in recognition for her discovery of the Protactinium isotope. She was also appointed the Director of Radiation Physics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Meitner and Hahn received even more international recognition through their ten nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize for Chemistry or Physics. Lise became the first female to teach physics in Germany in 1926 at the University of Berlin. Unfortunately, in 1933 when Hitler came to power, those of Jewish ancestry had their jobs taken away, including Lise. Meitner was allowed to continue research work for the Institute, so in 1934 she began a new research project with Hahn and his new colleague, Fritz Strassmann. They got together to prove and expand on Enrico Fermi’s theory on creating transuranic elements, elements heavier than Uranium, when Uranium absorbs an extra neutron. Ida Noddack in Berlin proposed the idea of nuclear fission by using neutrons to break Uranium apart into lighter elements. The team concluded together that Ida Noddack’s proposal on nuclear fission was highly unlikely. The team published papers on transuranic elements. In 1938, Austria was annexed by Germany and Meitner, with the help of her colleagues, had to plan a secret escape to the Netherlands and then she moved on to Sweden to work at the Nobel Institute for Physics. While Meitner was away in Sweden, Hahn and Strassmann continued their work with Uranium. They realized that after bombarding Uranium with neutrons, the element Barium was consistently a product. This was eye-opening because Barium is an element that is lighter than Uranium. As a result of this news, Meitner and her nephew Otto Frisch considered the model of the nucleus as a liquid drop that could break into two new nuclei. These new findings meant that Meitner’s four years of work in transuranic elements was wrong, but this realization led to a huge scientific discovery on Meitner’s behalf. One day in December of 1938, Meitner calculated the amount of energy produced when Uranium broke apart during nuclear fission. Her calculations told her that nuclear fission produced enormous amounts of energy. Meitner and Frisch then began writing papers to publish about their new discovery on nuclear fission. She told her partner Otto Hahn and her nephew Otto Frisch told Niels Bohr of their findings together. The news of Meitner’s discovery spread like wildfire, and soon enough people around the world were testing out her findings. Unfortunately, so many people had already carried out their experiments on nuclear fission that when Meitner and Frisch’s papers were finally published, they didn’t receive the recognition for their discovery that they deserved. In 1944, Otto Hahn alone received the Nobel Peace Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of nuclear fission. Two years later in 1946, Hahn gave both Frisch and Meitner proper credit for their part in the discovery of nuclear fission. Over the course of Lise Meitner’s life she instituted a significant social change for women. She was one of the first few women to have a higher education and receive her Ph.D. She was one of the first women that was taken in by Max Planck and the first female physics professor in Germany. Lise Meitner’s accomplishments in her career paved the way for more women to excel and become leaders in positions thought to only be fit for a man. With Meitner’s discovery of nuclear fission, nuclear power and atomic bombs soon followed. The discovery of nuclear fission and the atomic bomb was significantly influenced the final stages of World War II. Meitner received a multitude of rewards for her work in the science world. She has honorary doctorates from various universities. In 1946 when Meitner visited the United States, she received the “Woman of the Year” award from the National Press Club and also had dinner with President Truman. In 1949, she received the Max Planck medal. Meitner, Hahn, and Strassmann were all awarded the Enrico Fermi Prize in 1966. Lastly, in 1997, Meitner was recognized by having the newly discovered element 109, Meitnerium, named after her.
Meitner’s work in science left lasting impacts on other scientists and our world today. Otto Frisch’s scientific work was influenced by Meitner being closely related to each other. Frisch got into the study of physics because of Lise Meitner. Their collaborations led to Frisch’s contributions to the creation of the atomic bomb in 1940. The atomic bomb was a significant factor in World War II. Meitner’s nuclear fission discovery did not directly change people, but it led to a deeper understanding of the world in that a new energy source was available. Nuclear fission does impact our everyday lives because nuclear fission creates electricity. Electricity is a huge part of our everyday lives. Electricity powers the lights that we use, the appliances in our kitchen, the electronics and devices, and so much more. In conclusion, Meitner’s accomplishments in her career significantly influenced our lives and the lives of those during her time and will continue to affect the lives of those ahead of us.