Lise Meitner

Hello! My name is Lise Meitner. I was born a long, long time ago, on November 7th, 1878, in a beautiful city called Vienna, in Austria. When I was a little girl, I didn't play with dolls very much. Instead, I loved math and science! To me, the world was full of exciting puzzles just waiting to be solved. Back then, most people thought science was for boys, but I knew it was for me, too. I dreamed of going to a university and becoming a scientist.

I worked very hard, and in 1901, my dream came true—I started at the University of Vienna! After I finished, I moved to Berlin, Germany, in 1907 to learn even more. There, I met a friendly chemist named Otto Hahn, and we became a great team. Because I was a woman, I wasn't allowed to work in the main science building at first. So, Otto and I set up our own little laboratory in an old woodshop in the basement! We spent many happy hours there, and in 1917, we even discovered a brand-new element called protactinium.

I loved my work in Berlin, but in 1938, I had to leave my home. It was no longer a safe place for me to live, so I moved to Sweden. Even though I was far away, I kept working on science puzzles with Otto through letters. One day, he wrote to me about an experiment that didn't make any sense. He was confused, but I was curious! My smart nephew, Otto Frisch, and I thought about it during a walk in the snow. Suddenly, we figured it out! We realized Otto had split an atom in half. In 1939, we shared our idea with the world and called it 'nuclear fission.' It was a discovery that would change science forever.

My discovery helped other scientists understand how to create huge amounts of energy from tiny atoms. Even though my partner Otto Hahn received a big award for our work, I am so proud of what we figured out together. To honor me, scientists later named a brand-new element 'meitnerium.' I lived to be 89 years old, and I spent my life solving the puzzles that fascinated me. I hope my story reminds you to always stay curious and to never let anyone tell you that your dreams are too big.