In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 7 November 1878
- Died
- 27 October 1968
- Birthplace
- Vienna, Austria-Hungary
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Fission interpretation
- Letter coauthor
- Otto R. Frisch
- Earlier collaboration
- Otto Hahn
Why this life matters
Her work joined experimental radioactivity with the physical interpretation of nuclear fission.
Timeline
Key moments
Doctorate
Completed study in Vienna.
Exile
Left Germany for Sweden.
Later residence
Moved to Cambridge.
Vienna and Berlin
Meitner earned her doctorate in Vienna in 1906, after study with Franz Exner and Ludwig Boltzmann. She moved to Berlin in 1907 and began a long collaboration with Otto Hahn.
The collaboration crossed experimental specialties rather than replacing them. Chemistry and physics would later answer different parts of the fission question.
Sources for this section: [1]
A research career before fission
At the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute she led a physics department from 1918. Her research included beta and gamma radiation, recoil processes and protactinium. She qualified to teach at Berlin in 1922 and became professor in 1926.
The later famous interpretation therefore grew from decades of experimental and theoretical work. It should not make the earlier career disappear.
Sources for this section: [1]
Exile and a collaborative interpretation
Nazi restrictions removed her teaching rights in 1933. She fled Germany in 1938 and worked in Stockholm.
Meitner and Otto Frisch interpreted Hahn and Fritz Strassmannโs chemical evidence as a new kind of nuclear splitting in their 1939 letter.
The chemical separation and the physical explanation were related contributions by named people. A retrospective story should retain that division rather than assign the whole result to one investigator.
The 1944 chemistry Nobel went to Hahn alone; Meitner was not included.
Sweden and later life in Cambridge
She continued research in Sweden, moved to Cambridge in 1960 and died there in 1968. The 1966 Fermi award was shared with Hahn and Strassmann.
Her working life crossed several research settings. The linked letter study keeps the earlier chemical experiments and physical interpretation distinct.
Sources for this section: [2]
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Lise Meitner
- Does the archive association locate the fission letterโs research in Britain?
- No. It follows a later residence; the study identifies the earlier collaborators and settings separately.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Ernest Rutherford
Read an earlier stage of nuclear experimentation.
- Maria Goeppert Mayer
Compare a different theoretical account of nuclear structure.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Austrian Academy of Sciences, 175-year biographical recordLise Meitner
- 2. Deutsches Historisches Museum, LeMOLise Meitner
- 3. Lise Meitner/O. R. Frisch, Nature 143, 239โ240, 11 February 1939; AIP teaching reprintDisintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction
The actual letter reading used two pages of an AIP teaching transcription, not an original laboratory record or the full packet. The publication date is distinguished from a communication date.