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Lise Meitner - Nuclear Physicist Extraordinaire

© Jackie DiGiovanni

Lise Meitner was born November 7, 1878 (some records indicate it was November 17), in Vienna, Austria to Hedwig and Philipp Meitner. Her father was a lawyer and the family placed a high value on education. The Meitner home was often visited by highly educated people and the children were a welcome part of the gatherings. Meitner was the third of eight children. She began her lifelong love of music by learning to play the family's piano. The family was Jewish but did not practice Judaism.

Meitner finished school at age 13. Girls were not permitted a secondary school education. She tutored French to help pay family expenses and did volunteer work in the community. The government changed its position in 1897, but Meitner was not prepared to enter a university. Meitner's father hired a tutor and Meitner studied for two years to take the entrance examination, making up for eight years of lost schooling. In 1901, at age 23, Meitner was accepted at the University of Vienna majoring in physics. Women were still not well received in academics and Meitner faced considerable prejudice.

Her mentor was Ludwig Boltzmann, a theoretical physicist. A friend in a hostile environment, Boltzmann exerted great influence over Meitner and passed on his belief that atoms could be divided. He often spoke highly of the equipment and laboratories available in Germany. After completing the required coursework, Meitner became intensely interested in radioactive elements. She began her doctoral research and, in 1906, became only the second woman in Austria to receive a Ph.D. in physics. The mentor who had inspired her also battled chronic depression and committed suicide in 1906. It is thought that Boltzmann's death prompted Meitner to devote herself to physics.

Meitner emigrated to Germany in 1907, because there was no work for her in Austria. She accepted a position at the University of Berlin, working in radioactivity with Otto Hahn, a chemist. In 1913, both she and Hahn obtained  jobs at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute studying beta radiation. Her supervisor, Emil Fischer, set up her laboratory in a converted basement where he would not have to see her in a work environment that he believed should be all male. After two years, he relented, and Meitner was allowed to used the institute's facilities.

When WWI erupted, Meitner returned to Austria to work in a field hospital as a radiologist. She continued to meet and work with Hahn, and in 1917, they announced the discover of protactinium, the parent element of actinium. In 1918, she was named head of the physics department at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. In 1926, she was named Germany's first female professor of physics at the University of