Professor Otto Hahn, c mid-20th century

Otto Hahn, born 8 March 1879, died 28 July 1968, was a German chemist who pioneered radiochemistry. He is called the father of nuclear chemistry and discovered nuclear fission. Hahn was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering nuclear fission. Hahn studied at the University of Marburg, achieving his doctorate in 1901, and achieved his Habilitation in 1907. In 1912, he became head of the Radioactivity Department of the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry (KWIC). Hahn married Edith Junghans in 1913, and they had one child. During WWI, he served with a Landwehr regiment on the Western Front, and in the chemical warfare unit headed by Fritz Haber, earning his Iron Cross for his part in the First Battle of Ypres. After WWI, he became the head of KWIC. Hahn opposed the Nazis and their persecution of Jewish people, which led to the expulsion of many of his colleagues. During WWII, he worked on the German nuclear weapons program, and he was arrested by the Allied forces in Alsos Mission, which was concerned with Germany's nuclear program, and detained from July 1945 to January 1946. In 1959, he co-founded the Federation of German Scientists, and he helped re-build West German science post-war. Hahn died in 1968, aged 89. He had received many awards, including Max Planck Medal (1949), ForMemRS (1957) and Legion of Honour (1959).