![]() (Image credit: Dan Quinn) 8. Katherine Johnson (1918-) The 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was solely awarded to her colleague Otto Hahn, many believe unjustly. Meitner was the first woman to be appointed full Professor of Physics in Germany before she was forced to flee for Sweden due to Nazi persecution. The fission process, which splits the atomic nucleus of uranium to release an enormous amount of energy, was the basis for the nuclear weapons developed by the U.S. With the German chemist Otto Hahn, she led a group of scientists who first discovered the nuclear fission of uranium. ![]() ![]() The German-Swedish physicist specialised in radioactivity and nuclear physics. In 1911 she was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the two elements, and she remains the only person to be awarded in multiple sciences. In 1903, Curie became the first female Nobel laureate for her research on radioactivity. The Curies developed techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes and discovered two radioactive elements, polonium and radium. Their work on radioactivity, the process by which an unstable atom loses electrons by emitting radiation, paved the way for nuclear energy and medicine. The Polish-born, French-naturalised physicist and chemist carried out pioneering research on radioactivity (a term which she and her husband Pierre coined). To celebrate their contributions and discoveries, Australian Geographic has made a compilation of 12 prominent female scientists who have changed – or are changing – the face of physics. Today, contemporary female physicists – who include several Australians – are carrying out groundbreaking research and advancing both theoretical and experimental physics. Over the past century, women have made major contributions to physics, particularly in the fields of radioactivity, nuclear physics, astrophysics and astronomy.
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