Lise Meitner (1878-1968), German chemist, in 1916. Meitner was a pioneer of nuclear chemistry. She worked with Otto Hahn (1879-1968) for nearly 30 years. In the 1930s they worked on uranium bombarded with neutrons, but they did not realize fission was occurring. In 1938, Meitner, who was Jewish, fled Nazi Germany to Sweden. By 1939, both Hahn and Meitner had worked out that nuclear fission was taking place. This led to the building of the first atomic bomb. Hahn, but not Meitner, received the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.