Lise Meitner (1878-1968) was a pioneering physicist and a member of the famous Meitner family. She was born in Vienna, Austria, and earned her Ph.D. at the University of Frankfurt in 1906. In 1913 she became the first woman to receive a doctorate from the newly founded University of Berlin
After spending some time working for Guglielmo Marconi, she returned to the University of Frankfurt, where she worked on radioactivity and neutron physics. In 1917 she joined her brother Otto in exile in Sweden because her father was Jewish, but returned to Germany in 1938. During World War I, Otto Meitner had been a co-discoverer of nuclear fission with Werner Heisenberg.
The work done by Lise Meitner and her brother Otto is considered the beginning of nuclear physics in Germany, and their work has been widely recognized as pre-eminent in its field. In 1933 Lise Meitner received an appointment as a full professor at the University of Berlin, but that same year she was dismissed from her post when Hitler came to power. She moved to Sweden during World War II but again returned to Germany after the war ended in 1945.
Science makes people reach selflessly for truth and objectivity; it teaches people to accept reality, with wonder and admiration, not to mention the deep awe and joy that the natural order of things brings to the true scientist.Lise Meitner
You must not blame us scientists for the use which war technicians have put our discoveries.Lise Meitner
