The Women of NBI—Then and Now

12 Nov 2024, 12:15 → 13 Nov 2024, 16:30 Europe/Copenhagen

Auditorium A (Niels Bohr Institute)

Christian Joas (Niels Bohr Archive), Maren Malling (Kvinder i Fysik)

About the conference:

Kvinder i Fysik (Women in Physics) and the Niels Bohr Archive proudly present this 2-day conference focusing on the role of women in the history of the Niels Bohr Insitute. 

Everyone is welcome to join!

Sign up for the conference here.

Registration deadline: November 1, 2024.

Day 1 primarily features talks on historical women in the earliest days of the Insitute. The talks will cover scientists as well as important administrative staff and family members. Find the program for day 1 here.

Day 2 primarily features research and career talks by physicists currently connected to the Institute. Find the program for day 2 here.

The keynote presentation will be given by Anthea Coster from MIT Haystack Observatory about the life and reseach of Lise Meitner. This public event will take place at the Lundbeckfond Auditorium at Copenhagen Biocenter, Ole Maaløes Vej 5, 2200 Copenhagen N, on November 12 at 17:30-19:00 and does not require registration. 

Confirmed speakers:

Anthea Coster MIT Haystack Observatory

Liselotte Højgaard Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen and DTU

Christian Joas Niels Bohr Archive

Namiko Mitarai Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

Lene Oddershede Novo Nordisk Foundation

Sarah Pearson Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

Bente Rosenbeck Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen

Anja Skaar Jacobsen KVUC and Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen

Rob Sunderland Niels Bohr Archive

Irene Tamborra Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

Elisabeth Ulrikkeholm FOSS

The conference will conclude with a panel discussion on day 2, and the panelists are:

Anja C. Andersen Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

Hanne Andersen Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen

Anthea Coster MIT Haystack Observatory

Joachim Mathiesen Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

Birgitta Nordström Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

 

Tuesday, 12 November

12:15 → 12:30 Opening

Speakers: Christian Joas (Niels Bohr Archive), Maren Malling (Kvinder i Fysik)

12:30 → 14:30 Session 1

12:30 Kirstine Meyer and Hanna Adler

Speaker: Anja Skaar Jacobsen

13:00 Piedad de la Cierva, Rachel Lindsay, Jane Dewey and Tatiana Ehrenfest

Speakers: Christian Joas (Niels Bohr Archive), Rob Sunderland

13:30 Margrethe Bohr, Betty Schultz and Sophie Hellmann

Speakers: Christian Joas (Niels Bohr Archive), Rob Sunderland

14:00 Discussion session

14:30 → 15:00 Coffee break

15:00 → 16:20 Session 2

15:00 Hilde Levi

Speaker: Liselotte Højgaard

15:30 Research and career presentation

Speaker: Lene Oddershede

16:00 Discussion session

16:20 → 17:30 Break and relocation

We will relocate to the Lundbeckfond Auditorium at the Biocenter for the public talk with Anthea Coster.

17:30 → 19:00 Keynote presentation: Lise Meitner - Her Life and the Discovery of Fission

Lise Meitner was one of the pioneers of nuclear physics and co-discoverer, with Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, of nuclear fission. Albert Einstein once called her “the most significant woman scientist of the 20th century.” Yet by the 1970s, her name was nearly forgotten. With the publication of the book by Ruth Lewin Sime, “Lise Meitner, A life in physics,” to some extent her name has resurfaced. The chronology of the discovery of fission is considerably more complex than the facts, and clouded by events beyond the world of science. The facts are that on January 6, 1939, Hahn and Strassmann reported in Naturwissenschaften their chemical findings for fission. On February 11, 1939, Meitner and Frisch published in Nature the physical interpretation of the process they named fission. In 1944, Otto Hahn alone received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his discovery of the fission of heavy nuclei.”

I became familiar with Lise Meitner and her story when, in 1972, Dr. Sime started writing my father for details about Lise Meitner's escape from Germany. This is because in July 1938, my grandfather, Dirk Coster, was the person who escorted her out of Germany. In Sime's book, Meitner's escape from Germany reads like a spy novel, except that it is completely based in fact. At age 59, Meitner left Germany forever with 10 marks in her purse, one small suitcase, and a diamond ring given to her by Otto Hahn that he had inherited from his mother.

This talk will be a combination of facts, excerpts from the film, “Path to Nuclear Fission: The Story of Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn” (a film by Rosemarie Reed), and personal stories heard from my father, aunts, and uncles. Lise Meitner's early years, her role in the discovery of nuclear fission, her escape from Germany, and the consequences that followed will be covered.

Speaker: Anthea J. Coster

Wednesday, 13 November

09:00 → 10:20 Session 3

09:00 Research and career talk

Speaker: Elisabeth Ulrikkeholm

09:30 Research and career talk

Speaker: Namiko Mitarai

10:00 Discussion session

10:20 → 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 → 13:00 Session 4

11:00 Julie Vinter Hansen

Speaker: Bente Rosenbeck

11:30 Research and career talk

Speaker: Sarah Pearson

12:00 Research and career talk

Speaker: Irene Tamborra

12:30 Discussion session

13:00 → 14:30 Lunch

14:30 → 16:00 Panel Discussion

Panelists:
Anja. C. Andersen, Professor at NBI, University of Copenhagen
Anthea J. Coster, Assistant Director, MIT Haystack Observatory
Birgitta Nordström, Assoc. Professor Emerita at NBI, University of Copenhagen
Hanne Andersen, Professor at Dept. of Science Education, University of Copenhagen
Joachim Mathiesen, Head of Institute, NBI, University of Copenhagen