For the petrologist, see Otto Hahn (petrologist). For the nuclear-powered merchant vessel, see Otto Hahn (ship).
Otto Hahn
Born
(1879-03-08)8 March 1879
Frankfurt am Main, Hesse-Nassau, Prussia, German Empire (now Germany)
Died
28 July 1968(1968-07-28) (aged 89)
Göttingen, West Germany (now Germany)
Alma mater
University of Marburg
University of Munich
Known for
Discovery of radioactive elements (1905–1921)
Radiothorium (228Th, 1905)
Radioactinium (227Th, 1906)
Mesothorium (228Ra, 1907)
Ionium (230Th, 1907)
Spouse
Edith Junghans
(m. 1913)
Children
Hanno [de]
Awards
See list
Emil Fischer Medal (1919)
Cannizzaro Prize (1939)
Copernicus Prize (1941)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1944)
Max Planck Medal (1949)
Pour le Mérite (1952)
Faraday Lectureship Prize (1956)
ForMemRS (1957)
Wilhelm Exner Medal (1958)
Hugo Grotius Medal (1958)
Legion of Honour (1959)
Enrico Fermi Award (1966)
Scientific career
Fields
Radiochemistry
nuclear chemistry
Institutions
University College London
McGill University
University of Berlin
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry
Max Planck Society
Doctoral advisor
Theodor Zincke
Other academic advisors
Adolf von Baeyer (University of Munich)
Sir William Ramsay (University College London)
Ernest Rutherford (McGill University Montreal)
Emil Fischer (University of Berlin)
Doctoral students
See list
Walter Seelmann-Eggebert
Johannes Heidenhain
Aristid von Grosse
Fritz Strassmann
Salomon Rosenblum
Hans-Joachim Born
Siegfried Flügge
Nikolaus Riehl
Signature
Otto Hahn (pronounced[ˈɔtoːˈhaːn]ⓘ; 8 March 1879 – 28 July 1968) was a German chemist who was a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry and father of nuclear fission. Hahn and Lise Meitner discovered radioactive isotopes of radium, thorium, protactinium and uranium. He also discovered the phenomena of atomic recoil and nuclear isomerism, and pioneered rubidium–strontium dating. In 1938, Hahn, Meitner and Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission, for which Hahn alone, was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Nuclear fission was the basis for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.
A graduate of the University of Marburg, which awarded him a doctorate in 1901, Hahn studied under Sir William Ramsay at University College London and at McGill University in Montreal under Ernest Rutherford, where he discovered several new radioactive isotopes. He returned to Germany in 1906; Emil Fischer placed a former woodworking shop in the basement of the Chemical Institute at the University of Berlin at his disposal to use as a laboratory. Hahn completed his habilitation in the spring of 1907 and became a Privatdozent. In 1912, he became head of the Radioactivity Department of the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry. Working with the Austrian physicist Lise Meitner in the building that now bears their names, he made a series of groundbreaking discoveries, culminating with her isolation of the longest-lived isotope of protactinium in 1918.
During World War I he served with a Landwehr regiment on the Western Front, and with the chemical warfare unit headed by Fritz Haber on the Western, Eastern and Italian fronts, earning the Iron Cross (2nd Class) for his part in the First Battle of Ypres. After the war he became the head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, while remaining in charge of his own department. Between 1934 and 1938, he worked with Strassmann and Meitner on the study of isotopes created through the neutron bombardment of uranium and thorium, which led to the discovery of nuclear fission. He was an opponent of national socialism and the persecution of Jews by the Nazi Party that caused the removal of many of his colleagues, including Meitner, who was forced to flee Germany in 1938. During World War II, he worked on the German nuclear weapons program, cataloguing the fission products of uranium. As a consequence, at the end of the war he was arrested by the Allied forces; he was incarcerated in Farm Hall with nine other German scientists, from July 1945 to January 1946.
Hahn served as the last president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science in 1946 and as the founding president of its successor, the Max Planck Society from 1948 to 1960. In 1959 he co-founded in Berlin the Federation of German Scientists, a non-governmental organization, which has been committed to the ideal of responsible science. As he worked to rebuild German science, he became one of the most influential and respected citizens of the post-war West Germany.
OttoHahn (pronounced [ˈɔtoː ˈhaːn] ; 8 March 1879 – 28 July 1968) was a German chemist who was a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry...
chemists OttoHahn and Fritz Strassmann at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute found that bombarding thorium with neutrons produced different isotopes. Hahn and Strassmann...
discovered in December 1938 by chemists OttoHahn and Fritz Strassmann and physicists Lise Meitner and Otto Robert Frisch. Fission is a nuclear reaction...
over nuclear-fission research than did Walther Bothe, Klaus Clusius, OttoHahn, Paul Harteck, or Werner Heisenberg. Esau was appointed as Reichsmarschall...
discovered by OttoHahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann. Hahn understood that a "burst" of the atomic nuclei had occurred. Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch gave...
December 1938 in Berlin by German chemists OttoHahn and Fritz Strassmann. Physicists Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Robert Frisch explained it theoretically...
The OttoHahn Prize is awarded biennially jointly by the Society of German Chemists (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker), the German Physical Society (Deutschen...
appeared in the next two years. In December 1938, the German chemists OttoHahn and Fritz Strassmann sent a manuscript to The Natural Sciences reporting...
player Otto Graf Lambsdorff (1926–2009), German politician Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964), East German politician OttoHahn (1879–1968), German chemist Otto Herschmann...
The OttoHahn Peace Medal in Gold is named after the German nuclear chemist and 1944 Nobel Laureate OttoHahn, an honorary citizen of Berlin. The medal...
ˈʃtʁasˌman] ; 22 February 1902 – 22 April 1980) was a German chemist who, with OttoHahn in December 1938, identified the element barium as a product of the bombardment...
radioactive properties were discovered in 1896 by Henri Becquerel. Research by OttoHahn, Lise Meitner, Enrico Fermi and others, such as J. Robert Oppenheimer...
transferred to the unit. Future Nobel laureates James Franck, Gustav Hertz, and OttoHahn served as gas troops in Haber's unit.: 136–138 In 1914 and 1915, before...
The OttoHahn Medal (German: Otto-Hahn-Medaille) is awarded by the Max Planck Society to young scientists and researchers in both the natural and social...
after its discovery by chemists OttoHahn and Fritz Strassman, and explanation and naming by physicists Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch. In 1913, Henry Moseley...
about by slow neutrons". In Berlin, the collaboration of Lise Meitner and OttoHahn, together with their assistant Fritz Strassmann, furthered the research...
The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (OttoHahn Institute; German: Max Planck Institut für Chemie - OttoHahn Institut) is a non-university research...
by coprecipitating it with caesium salts such as caesium perchlorate. OttoHahn is credited for promoting the use of coprecipitation in radiochemistry...
medal and Honorary Fellowship 2009 – elected a Fellow of Optica 2013 – OttoHahn Prize 2015 – selected Clarivate Citation laureate in Physics with Paul...
– J. Robert Oppenheimer 1964 – Hyman G. Rickover 1966 – Lise Meitner; OttoHahn; Fritz Strassmann 1968 – John A. Wheeler 1969 – Walter Zinn 1970 – Norris...
open end, thus acting like a howitzer. Neutron howitzers were used by OttoHahn, Fritz Strassman, and Lise Meitner in 1938 to bombard uranium nuclei with...
collaboration with OttoHahn, and they named the element protactinium. In 1949, the IUPAC chose the name "protactinium" and confirmed Hahn and Meitner as...
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