Editing Lise Meitner (section)

===University of Vienna===
[[File:Lise Meitner12.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.0|Meitner in 1906]]

Meitner entered the [[University of Vienna]] in October 1901.{{sfn|Sime|1996|p=10}} She was particularly inspired by Ludwig Boltzmann and often spoke with enthusiasm about his lectures.{{sfn|Sime|1996|pp=12–16}} Her dissertation was supervised by [[Franz Exner]] and his assistant [[Hans Benndorf]].{{sfn|Sime|1996|p=17}} Her thesis, titled {{lang|de|Prüfung einer Formel Maxwells}} ({{gloss|Examination of a [[Maxwell's equations|Maxwell Equation]]}}), was submitted on 20 November 1905 and approved on 28 November. She passed an [[oral exam]] from Exner and Boltzmann on 19 December,{{sfn|Sime|1996|p=398}} and was awarded her doctorate on 1 February 1906.{{sfn|Sime|1996|p=16}} She became the second woman to earn a [[Doctor of Philosophy|doctoral degree]] in physics at the University of Vienna, after [[Olga Steindler]] who had received her degree in 1903;{{sfn|Sime|2005|p=7}} the third was [[Selma Freud]], who worked in the same laboratory as Meitner, and received hers in 1906.{{sfn|Sime|1996|p=398}} Meitner's thesis was published as {{lang|de|Wärmeleitung in inhomogenen Körpern}} ({{gloss|Thermal Conduction in Inhomogeneous Bodies}}) on 22 February 1906.{{sfn|Sime|1996|p=398}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Meitner |first1=Lise |title=Wärmeleitung in inhomogenen Körpern |trans-title=Thermal Conduction in Inhomogeneous Bodies |url=https://opacplus.bsb-muenchen.de/title/BV020318720 |publisher=Bayerische Staatsbibliothek |access-date=12 July 2020 |date=1906}}</ref>

[[Paul Ehrenfest]] asked her to investigate an article on [[optics]] by [[Lord Rayleigh]] detailing an experiment that produced results Rayleigh had been unable to explain. She was able to explain the results, and also made predictions based on her explanation, which she then verified experimentally, demonstrating her ability to carry out independent and unsupervised research.{{sfn|Sime|1996|pp=18–21}} She published the results in her report on "Some Conclusions Derived from the Fresnel Reflection Formula".<ref>{{cite journal |first=Lise |last=Meitner |title=Über einige Folgerungen, die sich aus den Fresnel'schen Reflexionsformeln ergeben |trans-title=Some Conclusions Derived from the Fresnel Reflection Formula |journal=Sitzungsberichte / Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Klasse. Abteilung IIA, Mathematik, Astronomie, Physik, Meteorologie und Technik |volume=115 |date=June 1906 |pages=259–286 }}</ref> In 1906, while engaged in this research, Meitner was introduced by [[Stefan Meyer (physicist)|Stefan Meyer]] to [[radioactivity]], then a very new field of study. She started with [[alpha particle]]s. In her experiments with [[collimator]]s and metal foil, she found that scattering in a beam of alpha particles increased with the mass of the metal atoms. She submitted her findings to the {{lang|de|[[Physikalische Zeitschrift]]}} on 29 June 1907. This was one of the experiments that led [[Ernest Rutherford]] to predict the [[nuclear atom]].{{sfn|Sime|1996|pp=18–21}}<ref>{{cite journal |title=Über die Zerstreuung der α-Strahlen |trans-title=On the Scattering of α-Rays |language=de |first=L. |last=Meitner |journal=Physikalische Zeitschrift |issn=2366-9373 |date=1 August 1907 |volume=8 |issue=15 |pages=489–496 |url=https://archive.org/details/physikalischeze00unkngoog/page/n73/mode/2up }}</ref>