nuclear-news

Lise Meitner helped discover nuclear fission but never won a Nobel Prize for her brilliance despite 49 nominations. WHY NOT?

COMMENT. This is a fine article about Lise Meitner’s achievements.

But the author attributes the neglect of Meitner to the fact that she was Jewish.

I don’t think it had anything to do with anti-semitism.

THIS WAS MEITNER’s CRIME:

when Meitner was invited to work on the Manhattan Project, she responded, “I will have nothing to do with a bomb.”

Lise Meitner helped discover nuclear fission but never won a Nobel Prize for her brilliance despite 49 nominations

• Lise Meitner identified the process of fission when her male colleagues couldn’t figure it out.
• Her closest colleague, Otto Hahn, downplayed the significant role she played in the discovery.
• In 1944, Hahn won a Nobel prize for the discovery. Meitner was nominated but didn’t win.

more https://www.businessinsider.com/lise-meitner-discovered-nuclear-fission-nominated-nobel-prize-never-won-2024-1

January 29, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | history