Born in Vienna in 1878, Lise Meitner was one of eight children; her father was among the first group of Jewish men to practice law in Austria. As with Marie Curie (but rare for a woman at the turn of the century), the intellectual atmosphere that surrounded her as a child nurtured her scientific inclination. She had a "marked bent" for mathematics as well, and adopted Madame Curie and Florence Nightingale as her heroines. The shy, quiet, young woman convinced her father to let her study with a private tutor to prepare her for university study. She easily passed the entrance examination to…
