Otto Hahn Biography, Education, Working Relationship, Works, Achievements

Otto Hahn (1879-1968) was a German chemist, who received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1944 - for his work in discovering nuclear fission. He was a distinguished chemist who worked in the pioneering fields of radiochemistry. After the Second World War, he fought against the use of nuclear weapons and became an influential scientific figure in West Germany.

Short Biography Of Otto Hahn

Otto Hahn was born in Frankfurt on March 8, 1879. From an early age he was interested in chemistry and was supported by his prosperous parents. He studied chemistry at the University of Marburg and obtained his Ph.D. in 1901. After a military service of years, he worked as an assistant at the University of Marburg, before going to London, England.

Otto Hahn Early Education

He went to University College London and worked under Sir William Ramsay. Hahn hopes to improve his knowledge of chemistry and English to help his professional career. In early 1906, he visited Montreal, where he spent a brief but fruitful time with Ernest Rutherford, where he studied the alpha rays of radio actinium.

In 1906, he returned to Germany where he collaborated with Emil Fischer at the University of Berlin. With just a basic chemistry laboratory, Hahn discovered Meothorium, and the mother substance of radium, ionium. This discovery has had excellent practical use for radiation therapy.

Otto Hahn Working Relationship

In 1907, he began a long working relationship with the Austrian Jewish physicist Lise Meitner. They remained long friends, but later criticized him for not doing enough to oppose the Nazi regime and the persecution of the Jews. Although Hahn helped some Jewish scientists, and played a role in helping Meitner escape from Sweden in 1938, after Anschluss forced him to flee.

In 1910 he was appointed professor at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, where he became head of the radiochemistry department.

During the First World War, Hahn was recruited into the German army and put to work to develop a chemical warfare. He has been involved in the development and organization of the use of toxic gases such as chlorine and mustard on both western and eastern fronts.

Otto Hahn Works

After the war, Hahn focused on the chemistry of radioactive elements. In 1921, with Lise Meitner, they made a very important discovery of uranium Z - the first example of nuclear isomers. Although few have paid much attention, this would prove very important in later nuclear physics. In 1936, he produced a book "Applied Radiography" which became a very important milestone in radiochemistry. Glenn Seaborg said:

"I believe it is fair to refer to Otto Hahn as the father of radiochemistry and its more recent nuclear chemistry."
In the late 1930s, the Hahn group made more progress in the study of uranium and were the first scientists to measure the half-life of uranium. In 1939 the Hahn group had discovered the basic mathematics of nuclear fission and the fact that uranium nuclei were split when they were bombarded with atoms. However, they did not continue their work at the conclusion of the production of the atomic bomb.

During the Second World War, Hahn and Fritz Strassmann continued to work on nuclear physics. At the end of the Second World War, he was interned in England suspected of working on Germany's nuclear program. He was released in 1946.

Hahn and Strassmann were able to discover nuclear fission through an exceptionally good chemistry, a fantastically good chemistry, which was well ahead of what anyone else was capable at that time. The Americans learned to do it later. But at that time, in 1938, Hahn and Strassmann were really the only ones who could do it, because they were good chemists.
Teacher. Dr. Lise Meitner in an interview on German television, ARD, on 8 March 1959.
During his internment, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1944 for his discovery of the fission of heavy atomic nuclei. He could not attend his internment in England. Some scientists have argued that their colleague Meitner should have been awarded the prize jointly.

Hahn was shocked to learn that the atomic bomb had been deposited on Japan in 1945, to a devastating effect. He felt guilty that he had, in a sense, been responsible for this great loss of life.

Otto Hahn Achievements

After the Second World War he campaigned against the use of nuclear weapons and in 1955 launched the Declaration of Mainau, which provided for the dangers of atomic weapons. He became a prominent figure in the post-war FDR and was a high-level critic against the rearmament of West Germany with atomic weapons. His opposition to the nuclear arms race led him to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1966, he received the Enrico Fermi Award - the only time it was awarded to a non-American.

Between 1948 and 1960, Hahn was the founding president of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science. Otto Hahn died in West Germany on 28 July 1968.

Time Magazine, wrote this tribute (Otto Hahn)

In postwar Germany, Otto Hahn became the most revered statesman of what used to be the most reliable scientific establishment in Europe. He has won numerous awards, including a Nobelprize in Chemistry for his discovery of fission. But he has always accepted such honors with characteristic humility. When he visited an atomic reactor or a nuclear power plant, he shrugged modestly: "Everything has been the work of others." In a 300-page reading brief that was published shortly, he scanned his historical work in less than five pages. Last week, at the age of 89, the father of the fission died peacefully in his beloved Göttingen.

Tuesday 27 June 2017