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Physics, Race, and Gender: Lise Meitner and the Discovery of Nuclear Fission
October 1, 2021 @ 16:00 - 18:00
Lise Meitner was a pioneering 20th century physicist whose contributions to atomic and nuclear physics culminated in the discovery of nuclear fission, together with the chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, in 1938. Although Meitner identified herself as a physicist above all else, she was also a Jew who was forced to flee Nazi Germany and a woman whose professional success did not transfer into Swedish exile. All these factors came together when Meitner’s essential role in the fission discovery was unjustly suppressed, and Hahn alone was awarded a Nobel Prize for work they had done together. In this talk I will focus on the science underlying the discovery and consider the impact of racial persecution, forced emigration, political oppression, and gender bias on how this discovery was understood, recognized, and eventually remembered
Co-sponsored by: Subra Ganesan
Speaker(s): Ruth Sime,
Agenda:
4:00 PM – Welcome and Introductions, Chapter business update; break
4:10 PM – Technical Talk/Presentation
5:15 PM – Q & A
5:45 PM – Wrap Up
/* ALL TIMES ARE USA EST/EDT (UTC-5) */
Room: Digital, Bldg: Virtual, Rochester, Michigan, United States, 48309, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/276501