Lise Meitner (1878-1968) was a physicist who studied radioactive decay. After earning her PhD she joined a lab at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute, but had to work in a separate room because she was a woman. Eventually she became a joint director of the institute, and then a professor at the Berlin Institute of Theoretical Physics. Meitner, who was Jewish, was forced to leave Berlin during Nazi rule. After escaping to Sweden she discovered nuclear fission (although she did not receive a Nobel for this discovery). Asked to help make a nuclear bomb, Meitner refused. She was the first woman to be awarded the Fermi Award.
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