Ida Noddack, German Chemist and Physicist

Ida Noddack (February 25, 1896 - October 29 1978), nee Ida Tacke, was a German chemist and physicist. She was one of the first women in Germany to study chemistry and to hold a professional chemist's position in the chemical industry in Germany. She correctly criticized Enrico Fermi's chemical proofs in his 1934 neutron bombardment experiments, from which he postulated that transuranic elements might have been produced, and which was widely accepted for a few years. In so doing she presaged what would become known a few years later as nuclear fission. However Noddack offered no theoretical basis for this possibility, which defied the understanding at the time. The paper was generally ignored. With her husband Walter Noddack she discovered element 75 rhenium. She was nominated three times for Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She died in 1978 at the age of 82

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Chemistry Discovered Element Enhancement Fission

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