1879-1968. West German physical chemist, who
discovered nuclear fission. Nobel prize 1944.
He worked with Ernest Rutherford and William
Ramsay, and became director of the Kaiser
Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in 1928. In
1938 with Fritz Strassmann (1902-1980), he
discovered that uranium nuclei split when
bombarded with neutrons, which led to the
development of the atom bomb.