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| Fig. 1: Ida Noddack (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
Ida Noddack was born February 25, 1896 in Wesel, Germany, and she died September 24, 1978 in Bad Neuenahr, Germany. Throughout her lifetime, she contributed greatly to several areas of science. She graduated from the Technische Hochschule in 1918 with a degree in chemical and metallurgical engineering She is most codiscovering the chemical element rhenium with her husband Walter Noddack. She is also known for known for being the first person to introduce the idea of nuclear fission in 1934. [1] Both a chemist and a physicist, Ida Noddack was one of the first women in Germany to contribute and have such a profound impact on science, which helped to pave the way for other women in these fields in the future. However, it is important to note that she faced several obstacles in her research because of gender issues and the difficulty of researching during the Nazi regime.
Working alongside her husband, Ida Noddack made massive discoveries in science. Working at a research agency in Berlin, Noddack was determined to discover the missing elements in Dmitry Mendeleyevs periodic table. After years of experimenting, she discovered what became known as rhenium, which had an atomic number of 75. [1] Her discovery was challenged by other scientists in the field, which prolonged her research, but never discouraged her to give up. She succeeded in proving that rhenium was in fact an element in 1925. Aside from her work with the elements, Noddack was also the first person to introduce the idea of nuclear fission. She critiqued Italian physicist Enrico Fermi's experimental results with uranium by suggesting that the bombardment of uranium with neutrons can produce smaller nuclei. [1] Here, she was alluding to the idea of nuclear fission.
Because of her outstanding work, Ida Noddack received several awards. For example, she became the first woman to give a major address to the Society of German Chemists in 1925. [1] She was also awarded the Liebig Medal of the German Chemical Society in 1931, the Scheele Medal of the Swedish Chemical Society in 1934, and the High Service Cross of the German Federal Republic in 1966. [1] On top of all of this, Noddack was granted honorary membership into some of the most elite societies, such as the Spanish Society of Physics and Chemistry in 1934, and the International Society of Nutrition Research in 1963. [2]
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[1] G. M. Santos, "A Tale Of Oblivion: Ida Noddack And The 'Universal Abundance' Of Matter," Notes Rec. 68, 373 (2014).
[2] M. F. Rayner-Canham, and G. W. Rayner-Canham, A Devotion to Their Science: Pioneer Women of Radioactivity (McGill-Queen's University Press, 1997).
