Lise Meitner

Lise Meitner was the third of eight children of a Jewish family. She entered the [University of Vienna]? in 1901, studying physics under [Ludwig Boltzmann]?. After she achieved doctorate degree, she went to Berlin in 1907 to study with Max Planck and the chemist [Otto Hahn]?. She worked together with Hahn for 30 years, each of them leading a section in Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry.

After Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938, Meitner emigrated to work at Manne Siegbahn's institute in Stockholm, but stayed in contact with Hahn. On November 13, 1938, Hahn met secretly with Meitner in Copenhagen. In 1939, both Meitner and Hahn published independently their proof of [nuclear fission]?.

In 1945, Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics, and Meitner was ignored by the Nobel comittee. This was partially corrected in 1966, when Hahn and Meitner together were awarded the [Fermi Prize]?.