Fritz Strassmann

Strassmann, Fritz (1902– ), German physical chemist who, with Otto Hahn, split the uranium atom (1938). He briefly joined the staff at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, taught inorganic and nuclear chemistry at the University of Mainz, and became the head of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. In 1966 the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission presented him, Hahn, and Lise Meitner with the Fermi Award.

See also: Chemistry; Uranium.