18 Facts About Hilde Levi

Hilde Levi was a pioneer of the use of radioactive isotopes in biology and medicine, notably the techniques of radiocarbon dating and autoradiography.

Hilde Levi carried out her doctoral studies at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry at Berlin-Dahlem, writing her thesis on the spectra of alkali metal halides under the supervision of Peter Pringsheim and Fritz Haber.

Hilde Levi went to Denmark where she found a position at the Niels Bohr Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen.

Hilde Levi retired from the Zoophysiological Laboratory in 1979, but became involved with the Niels Bohr Archive, where she collected papers of de Hevesy, eventually publishing his biography.

Hilde Levi was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on 9 May 1909, the daughter of Adolf Levi, the sales director of a metal company, and his wife Clara, the daughter of a printer.

Hilde Levi was a gifted musician who learned to play the piano at a young age.

Hilde Levi soon rebelled against this, and told her parents that she did not wish to attend the classes.

Hilde Levi was the only girl in her class to major in physics that year.

Hilde Levi entered the University of Munich in 1929, where she listened to lectures by Arnold Sommerfeld.

Hilde Levi's supervisors had gone into exile, and Jews were no longer allowed to be hired for academic positions.

The Danish branch of the International Federation of University Women helped Hilde Levi find a position at the Niels Bohr Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

Hilde Levi became engaged to the physicist Hans Bethe in 1934.

Hilde Levi never married, but became friends with many of the Jewish physicists who did visit the institute, including Otto Frisch, George Placzek, Rudolf Peierls, Leon Rosenfeld, Edward Teller and Victor Weisskopf.

Hilde Levi worked as Franck's assistant, publishing two papers with him on the fluorescence of chlorophyll, until he left Denmark for the United States in 1935.

Hilde Levi then became assistant to the Hungarian physical chemist George de Hevesy.

Hilde Levi developed the new technique of autoradiography while working for the United States Atomic Energy Commission at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York.

Hilde Levi was a consultant at the Danish National Board of Health from 1952 to 1970.

Hilde Levi retired from the Zoophysiological Laboratory in 1979, but became involved with the Niels Bohr Archive, where she collected papers from de Hevesy.