The Woman Behind Fision: An Abridged Biography of Lise Meitner

Born in Vienna in 1878, Lise Meitner was one of eight children; her father was among the first group of Jewish men to practice law in Austria. As with Marie Curie (but rare for a woman at the turn of the century), the intellectual atmosphere that surrounded her as a child nurtured her scientific inclination. She had a "marked bent" for mathematics as well, and adopted Madame Curie and Florence Nightingale as her heroines. The shy, …

…ietly returned to work on subatomic particles, especially beta rays. Physics was her life; no evidence has been found indicating that she was ever involved in a romantic relationship. She retired to Cambridge, England where she died shortly before her 90th birthday. And though denied the Nobel, Lise will be rewarded with far more durable fame. In 1994 an international commission agreed that element 109, artificially created by slamming bismuth with iron ions, will be named "meitnerium."