The Department of Physics is organising an interesting initiative aimed at fourth- and fifth-year students at upper secondary schools in the Lombardy Region, which is open to the entire Polytechnic community.
On 20 October 2026, a theatre performance dedicated to Lise Meitner will be held at the Aula De Donato (Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, Milan). Meitner was Germany’s first female full professor of physics and a scientist who devoted her entire life to research, culminating in the insight that helped change the course of human history: the discovery of nuclear fission.
Lise Meitner also suffered severe discrimination as a woman and a Jew, and her fundamental contribution to the discovery of nuclear fission was not recognised with the award of the Nobel Prize.
The play is written and performed by Paola Tortora of VintuleraTeatro, in collaboration with Giovanni Carlotti and Alessio Stollo of the University of Perugia, with historical consultancy by Antonio Schiattarella.
The event format was trialled last year during the FISMAT2025 conference in Venice, at the Aula Magna of the University of Perugia and in theatres in Terni and Gualdo Tadino, in front of hundreds of researchers, university students and sixth-form students.
The event will take place at 11.00 and will last approximately 90 minutes. Admission is free, but you must register to reserve your place using the form below.