Ida Eva Noddack (née Tacke)

Co - discovered the chemical element Rhenium and was among the first to propose the possibility of nuclear fission.

Ida Noddack (1896-1978) was a German chemist who - together with her colleagues - discovered rhenium in 1925, and in 1934 became the first scientist to publicly hypothesize that atomic nuclei, when bombarded with neutrons, might split - a conceptual precursor to nuclear fission.

Ida Eva Tacke was born on 25 February 1896 in Lackhausen (now part of Wesel), in the Rhineland region of Germany. Despite societal norms that limited women's roles in science, she pursued higher education and in 1915 entered the Technical University of Berlin - Charlottenburg - at a time when few German women studied chemistry. She completed her diploma and in 1921 obtained her doctorate, with a dissertation on high aliphatic fatty - acid anhydrides. By 1925, at the Physico - Technical Research Agency in Berlin, she collaborated with Walter Noddack (her future husband) and Otto Berg, and together they discovered the element rhenium (atomic number 75), named after the Rhine region. They also claimed discovery of a second element, "masurium" (atomic number 43), which later proved to be incorrect, as Technetium was only identified in 1937. In 1934, Noddack published a paper proposing that uranium nuclei, when bombarded with neutrons, might split - a conceptual precursor to nuclear fission. Her idea was ignored at the time but later confirmed by experiments in 1938-1939. She received several honors during her career, including the Liebig Commemorative Medal (1931), the Scheele Medal, the Great Cross of Merit of Germany (1966), and an honorary doctorate. Ida Noddack continued her scientific work until retirement and died on 24 September 1978 in Bad Neuenahr, Germany. Her discovery of rhenium and her early insight on nuclear fission left a lasting legacy in chemistry and nuclear physics.