Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences - Department of Physics

Department Colloquium: Prof. Dr. Beate Heinemann (Direktorin für den Bereich Teilchenphysik, DESY, Hamburg) will talk about:

Two female pioneers in physics: Lise Meitner, Vera Rubin
and the stories of the Nuclear Force and Dark Matter

Abstract

Lise Meitner and Vera Rubin were both extraordinary scientists and pioneers as women in the male domain of physics. Lise Meitner was born in Austria in the late 19th century and played a pivotal role during the first quantum revolution, in particular in the understanding of the nuclear force. Vera Rubin was born about 50 years later in the US and already as a child was fascinated by stars. Later she discovered and measured in details the anomalous rotation of stars around galaxies that led to the believe that a halo of Dark Matter must be part of the galaxy, and increases the rotation velocity of the stars. Both of them encountered many obstacles but managed to overcome them due to various factors. I will discuss how they became scientists, their scientific accomplishments and how they overcame the obstacles.

The Colloquium will be held in "hybrid" format, i.e., you can join the talk in the lecture hall or via zoom.
Zoom Link:
https://hu-berlin.zoom.us/j/64567336962?pwd=QjhyMW5SbFVBZWVNRWJrTFBFN2Rtdz09
Meeting-ID: 645 6733 6962
Passwort: 607723