Otto Hahn
German nuclear chemist and Nobel laureate (1879–1968)
Who was Otto Hahn?
Otto Hahn lived from March 8, 1879 to July 28, 1968. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry and discoverer of nuclear fission, the science behind nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. A graduate of Marburg University, which awarded him a doctorate in 1901, Hahn studied under Sir William Ramsay at University College London and at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, under Ernest Rutherford, where he discovered several new radioactive isotopes. He returned to Germany in 1906; Emil Fischer let him use a former woodworking shop in the basement of the Chemical Institute at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin as a laboratory. Hahn and Lise Meitner discovered isotopes of the radioactive elements radium, thorium, protactinium and uranium. He also discovered the phenomena of atomic recoil and nuclear isomerism, and pioneered rubidium–strontium dating. Hahn completed his habilitation in early 1907 and became a Privatdozent.
Historical significance
Otto Hahn (German: [ˈɔtoː ˈhaːn] ; 8 March 1879 – 28 July 1968) was a German chemist who was a pioneer in the field of radiochemistry. In 1938, Hahn, Meitner and Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission, for which Hahn alone was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
