July 28, 1968 – Death of Otto Hahn, discoverer of uranium and thorium nuclear fission

He studied chemistry in Marburg and Munich and, after receiving his doctorate in 1901, worked at the University of Marburg.

In 1905, he settled in Berlin and, together with Lise Meitner and Otto von Baeyer, developed a technique for measuring the beta decay spectra of radioactive isotopes. Recognition for this achievement secured him a professorship at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute of Chemistry in Berlin in 1912.

On 31 January 1917, he and Meitner discovered protactinium.

When Lise Meitner fled Nazi Germany in 1938, Hahn continued the work with Fritz Strassmann in elucidating the result of bombarding uranium with thermal neutrons. He communicated his results, the discovery of the elements barium and krypton, to Meitner who, in collaboration with his nephew, Otto Robert Frisch, correctly interpreted them as evidence for nuclear fission.

Once the idea of fission was accepted, Hahn continued his experiments and showed that enormous amounts of energy were released in neutron-induced fission and could be of use to mankind.

In 1944, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering work in the field of radioactivity, discovering the nuclear fission of uranium and thorium in 1938, although omitting the fundamental contribution of his colleague, Lise Meitner.

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