3. Austrian physicist Lise Meitner first developed the theory explaining the process of nuclear fission.

However, she was overlooked by the Nobel committee, who instead awarded Meitner’s colleague Otto Hahn the prize in 1944. Meitner came to be known as the “mother of the atom bomb,” although she refused to work on the Manhattan Project after fleeing Nazi Germany. Element 109 is called meitnerium in her honor.