Hahn's Fellow Researchers

...Of course, Hahn couldn't take credit for all the work done himself, (although he did try to.. check out the interesting facts section!), and luckily for him, he had two very talented individuals to help him out. Here is just a brief background on his two assistants/co-workers, Strassmann and Meitner.

Lise Meitner
...Meitner was born in Austria, 1878 to a Jewish family. Lise began her studies at the University of Vienna in 1901 as there had been strict restrictions on when a female was allowed and could begin to study. It was here that Lise discovered that she was an excellent physicist and decided to move on and persue this area of study more. 6 years later she began studies with Max Planck in Berlin. After this she became partners with Otto Hahn with Lise working with the physics parts of their endevors, and Hahn with the chemistry aspects. After Enrico Fermi discovered in 1934 that slowed neutrons are effective in breaking apart substances, Meitner and Hahn turned their attention to this, and brought a young Fritz Strassmann into the picture. After the war broke out Meitner was forced to leave Germany, due to the fact that she was Jewish. She led Strassmann and Hahn to the discovery of the process of fission by writing them letters and having them test the products of the uranium they had bombarded with the slow neutrons (from Fermi's discovery). Lise Meitner lived a long life, passing away in 1968, after receiving the U.S. Fermi Prize. Unfortunately, Meitner was never recognized with a Nobel Prize, which she sincerly deserved.^1,2

Fritz Strassmann
...Strassman was born in Germany in 1902. He studied hard and was finally able to receive his Ph.D in 1929. After receiving his Ph.D., Strassmann went on to help discover that rubidium and strontium could be use to date organisms. Strassmann then began his work with Hahn and Meitner in Germany at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, where they worked on spliting uranium and the process of nuclear fission. After this, Strassmann became a professor, then went on to also become a chemistry director at the Max Planck Institute (formerly the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute). Strassmann died at the age of 78 in Germany, in 1980. ³
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1. Lise Meitner: A Battle For Ultimate Truth. San Diego Supercomputer Center.December 18, 2005. <http://www.sdsc.edu/
ScienceWomen/meitner.html>.
2. Bodanis, David. E=mc². Canada: Anchor Canada, 2000.
3. Unknown Author. Fritz Strassmann. December 18, 2005. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
/2WWstrassmann.htm>.
4. Das Berliner Team. Institut fur Kernchemie. December 18, 2005. <http://www.kernchemie
.uni-mainz.de/institut/strassmann07.html>.

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