Marietta Blau | |
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Born | Vienna, Austria-Hungary | 29 April 1894
Died | 27 January 1970 Vienna, Austria | (aged 75)
Nationality | Austrian |
Occupation | Physicist |
Known for | Using nuclear emulsions to detect high energy particles |
Marietta Blau (29 April 1894 – 27 January 1970) was an Austrian physicist credited with developing photographic nuclear emulsions that were usefully able to image and accurately measure high-energy nuclear particles and events, significantly advancing the field of particle physics in her time. For this, she was awarded the Lieben Prize by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. As a Jew, she was forced to flee Austria when Nazi Germany annexed it in 1938, eventually making her way to the United States. She was nominated for Nobel Prizes in both physics and chemistry for her work, but did not win. After her return to Austria, she won the Erwin Schrödinger Prize from the Austrian Academy of Sciences.