Otto Hann was a German chemist who revolutionized the study of nuclear chemistry. Following a childhood interest in chemistry, he earned a doctorate in chemistry, intending to become an industrial chemist. Despite this planned future in industry, a brief detour in a radiochemistry lab led him to become a researcher in this field, eventually winning the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of nuclear fission. He was also an opponent of the both the Nazi regime, and nuclear weapons. In addition to great contributions to chemistry, Otto Hahn was a powerful voice for social causes, such as his stance against Nazism and nuclear proliferation.
Otto Hahn was born in 1879 and grew up in Frankfurt am Main, Prussia, where he was the son of a prosperous entrepreneur. Although his father, who was a prosperous glazier, wanted him to be an architect he had an interest in chemistry, which led him to start performing chemistry experiments at the age of 15 in
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An example of this was when He helped Lise Meitner escape from the Nazis by giving her a diamond ring for which she was to bribe the at the border with. After hearing about the use of the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima he felt a great deal of guilt for discovering nuclear fission. He finally won the Nobel Prize when he was interned in England, reflecting upon his win, many other scientists commented that he could equally have won the prize for peace, due to the attitude and actions he took to help Jewish scientists escape from the Nazi threat. After the war, he did a great deal of writing about the dangers of atomic energy and was even nominated by large organizations for the Nobel peace prize in recognition of his efforts to stop the use of atomic energy for killing