Lilli Hornig is one of the few women characters in the movie “Oppenheimer” and the only one that is shown as contributing scientifically to Manhattan project. Hornig was portrayed by actor Olivia Thirlby. She is our #9 in “Women in Nuclear History” series.
Here are some facts from her life:
1) Lilli Hornig (1921-2017) was born in Czech Republic. Her father, Erwin Schwenk, was an organic chemist.
2) In 1929 her family moved to Berlin, but 4 years later she and her mother were forced to escape to the United States (following her father) since they were of Jewish origin.
3) Hornig completed her undergraduate education at Bryn Mawr, college in Pennsylwania. After that, she began a graduate program at Harvard. In 1943 she married Donald Hornig, they had four children together.
4) She accompanied her husband to Los Alamos. Apparently she was asked to take a typing test when she arrived (this scene is showed in the film), but her scientific skills were recognized, so she was able to work as a staff scientist with plutonium chemistry.
5) Lilli witnessed the first detonation of the atomic bomb from the Sandia Mountains near Los Alamos. She described the explosion as, “boiling clouds and color – vivid colors like violet, purple, orange, yellow, and red.”
6) She didn’t want to drop the bomb on civilians. She signed a petition advocating against using it for civilian population.
7) When it was later decided that plutonium chemistry was too dangerous for women, Hornig worked with high-explosive lenses instead.
8) After the war Hornig received her Ph.D. from Brown University in 1950. Later she became a chairwoman of the chemistry department at Trinity College in Washington, D.C.
9) Lilli Hornig became a fierce advocate for women in higher education. She founded Higher Education Resource Services (HERS), which researches historic discrimination against women and challenges sexist hiring practices. She served on equal opportunity committees for the National Science Foundation, the National Cancer Institute, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
10) Hornig died on November 17, 2017, in Providence, Rhode Island, aged 96.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilli_Hornig
https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/lilli-hornig/
https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/voices/oral-histories/lilli-hornigs-interview/