Lise Meitner

Overview

Lise Meitner born Vienna, Austria-Hungary November 7, 1878 (d. 1968). Austrian physicist called “Mother of the Atomic Bomb.” First woman full professor Berlin; exiled as Jew 1938; lifelong pacifist.

Quotations

“I will have nothing to do with a bomb!” (1943, in Ruth Sime, Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics)

"Women have a great responsibility and they are obliged to try, so far as they can, to prevent another war. I hope that the construction of the atom bomb not only will help to finish this awful war, but that we will be able to also use this great energy that has been released for peaceful work." (Eleanor Roosevelt interview, NBC, Aug. 9, 1945, in Patricia Rife, p. 253; photo New York Times)