Lise Meitner (1878 - 1968). Austrian-born Swedish nuclear physicist.Born in Vienna, she worked at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute with radiochemist,Otto Hahn. They discovered the element protactinium and studied the effectsof neutron bombardment on uranium. Meitner became joint director of theinstitute and was appointed head of the Physics Department in 1917. Afterleaving Nazi Germany in 1938, she found a post at the Nobel Physical Institutein Stockholm. She continued her research there, and, together with hernephew Otto Frisch, realized that they had split the uranium nucleus. Theycalled it "fission." During the war, she refused to work on the atomicbomb. In 1947, a laboratory was established for her by the Swedish AtomicEnergy Commission, and she worked on an experimental nuclear reactor.
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