Lise Meitner was born on November 7th, 1878 in the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna, Austria-Hungary. Her full name was Elise Meitner but ultimately decided to go by Lise. She was the third of eight children: Carola Meitner, Auguste Meitner, Gisela Meitner, Frida Meitner, Moriz Meitner, Max Meitner, and Walter Meitner. He was raised in a middle-class Jewish family and her father was one of the first Jewish lawyers admitted to practice in Austria. As a child, Meitner was always interested in science and mathematics. She would research scientific things and jot them down in a notebook when she was eight. At the time, women were not allowed to attend public schooling of higher education until 1897. Her education was mostly self-taught, and it included bookkeeping, arithmetic, history, geography, science, French, and gymnastics. Unfortunately, women were not offered many options in the career department, and the only career allowed for women was teaching. But Meitner made the best of it and trained to become a French teacher. She also took private physics courses with a few other women and ended up attending the University of Vienna in 1901. It was there that she learned about radioactivity, alpha particles, and how to do independent research. 

After Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938, she was forced to flee Germany for Sweden. She continued to work on her career at Manne Siegbahn’s institute in Stockholm. There was a lot of prejudice against women in science coming from Otto Hahn at the time. She had very little support from those around her, but she powered through. In January 1939, she created studies at Hahn’s laboratory in Berlin. It was here that she experimented with nuclear fission, and presented the public with evidence supporting its existence in February of 1939 alongside her nephew, Otto Frisch. In 1944, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Hahn downplayed Meitner’s contributions to the research of nuclear fission, and so she went uncredited for her discoveries. 

She passed away on October 27th, 1968. Most scientists today consider her to be one of the most impactful women in science during the 20th century. The heaviest known element in the universe was named Meitnerium (Mt) in her honor. Einstein called her the “German Marie Curie” and the name stuck. Thankfully today we have given credit where it is due, but of course, that cannot erase the past mistakes of pure discrimination.