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Fritz Strassmann

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Also known as Friedrich Wilhelm "Fritz" Strassmann, Friedrich Wilhelm Strassmann

German chemist (1902–1980)

Key facts

Born
Friedrich Wilhelm Strassmann , ( 1902-02-22 ) 22 February 1902, Boppard , Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died
22 April 1980 (1980-04-22) (aged 78), Mainz , Rhineland-Palatinate, West Germany
Alma mater
Technical University of Hannover ( PhD )
Known for
Discovery of nuclear fission
Awards
Enrico Fermi Award (1966)
Fields
Chemistry
Institutions
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute , University of Mainz
Doctoral advisor
Hermann Braune [ de ]

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Wilhelm
Gender
male
Citizenship
Germany
Place of birth
Boppard
Place of death
Mainz
Languages spoken
German
Doctoral advisor
Otto Hahn
Field of work
nuclear fission
Work location
Mainz
Residence
Germany
Show 9 more facts
Commons category
Fritz Straßmann
date of birth
1902-02-22
date of death
1980-01-01
name in native language
Fritz Straßmann
birth name
Friedrich Wilhelm Straßmann
significant person
Lise Meitner
maintained by WikiProject
WikiProject Mathematics
Sources (5)

via Wikidata · CC0

~11 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Friedrich Wilhelm Strassmann ( German: [fʁɪt͡s ˈʃtʁasˌman] ; 22 February 1902 – 22 April 1980) was a German chemist who, with Otto Hahn in December 1938, identified the element barium as a product of the bombardment of uranium with neutrons. Their observation was the key piece of evidence necessary to identify the previously unknown phenomenon of nuclear fission, as was subsequently recognized and published by Lise Meitner and Robert Frisch.

In their second publication on nuclear fission in February 1939, Strassmann and Hahn predicted the existence and liberation of additional neutrons during the fission process, opening up the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Fritz Strassmann” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.