Lise Meitner was a physicist whose genius provided the theoretical explanation for nuclear fission. Working with her nephew Otto Frisch, she realized that when a uranium nucleus is bombarded with neutrons, it can split into two smaller nuclei, releasing a massive amount of energy. She used Einstein's $E = mc^2$ to calculate the energy released. Despite her critical role, she was excluded from the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which went solely to her collaborator Otto Hahn—a decision widely regarded as one of the Nobel Committee's greatest injustices. Meitner refused to work on the Manhattan Project, stating 'I will have nothing to do with a bomb.' The element Meitnerium is named in her honor.