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Lise Meitner (November 7, 1878 - October 27, 1968) was an Austrian physicist who worked on radioactivity and nuclear physics. She was part of the Hahn-Meitner-Strassmann team that worked on transuranium elements since 1935, which led to the radiochemical discovery of uranium and thorium in 1938. By 1939, both Hahn and Meitner had worked out that nuclear fission was taking place. Meitner recognized the possibility for a chain reaction of enormous explosive potential. She refused an offer to work on the project at Los Alamos, declaring "I will have nothing to do with a bomb!" Hahn, but not Meitner, received the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. She is often mentioned as one of the most glaring examples of women's scientific achievement overlooked by the Nobel committee. A 1997 Physics Today study concluded that Meitner's omission was "a rare instance in which personal negative opinions apparently led to the exclusion of a deserving scientist" from the Nobel. After breaking her hip in a fall and suffering several small strokes in 1967, Meitner made a partial recovery, but moved into a nursing home. She died at the age of 89. Element 109, meitnerium, is named in her honor.
