Frisch, Otto Robert (1904-1979)

Austrian-born British physicist who first described the fission of uranium nuclei under neutron bombardment, coining the term ‘fission’ to describe the splitting of a nucleus.

Frisch was born and educated in Vienna. Doing research at Hamburg, he fled from Nazi Germany in 1933, initially to the UK and in 1934 to the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen. The German occupation of Denmark at the beginning of World War II forced Frisch to return to Britain. He then worked 1943-45 on the atom bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA. He was professor of natural philosophy at Cambridge University 1947-71. Frisch worked on methods of separating the rare uranium-235 isotope that would undergo fission. He also calculated details such as the critical mass needed to produce a chain reaction and make an atomic bomb, and urged the British government to undertake nuclear research. At the first test explosion of the atomic bomb, Frisch conducted experiments from a distance of 40 km/25 mi. He was the nephew of physicist Lise Meitner.