Daisi secures funds for performance piece on the life of Lise Meitner

Arts in Education charity Daisi has secured £1500 in funding from the Institute of Physics (IOP) through its Public Engagement Grant Scheme, to run performances detailing the life and work of 20th century female physicist Lise Meitner.

This year, there were over fifty applications submitted to the IOP for the Public Engagement Grant Scheme. Nine projects were successful in securing funding from the IOP, and over £14,000 was awarded in total.

£1500 has been offered to support the performance, named Lise Meitner: The Battle for Ultimate Truth, which will cover her role in the discovery of nuclear fission, her life living in Europe during the first and second world wars, and her impact on the modern world today.

The performance piece will be accompanied by a workshop covering the science and maths Meitner used in her research.

Both the workshop and the performance will be created by local science communication organisation Footcandle Productions alongside Physics graduates, theatre practitioners and young people from state secondary school Queen Elizabeth’s Academy, in Devon.

IOP Funding will go towards technical rehearsals of the show, and to support a performance of the show at the Sidmouth Science Festival. The plan is for the performance and the workshops to tour around educational institutes, conferences and future science fairs.
Liz Hill, the director of Daisi said of the grant award: “We are delighted to have been granted an award from the Institute of Physics for our ambitious partnership project – Lise Meitner: The Battle for Ultimate Truth, which aims to bring attention to Meitner’s role in the discovery of ‘nuclear fission’, her humanity and her impact on the modern world.

“We have combined forces with science communications company Footcandle Productions who will create a performance piece and associated workshop programme to inspire a passion like Meitner’s for the pure and exquisite simplicity of Physics.”
The Public Engagement Grant Scheme is run twice a year, and looks to award up to £2,000 to individuals and organisations running physics-based events and activities in the UK and Ireland.

Dr. Johanna Kieniewicz, head of outreach and public engagement at the IOP, said she was very pleased with the number of high quality applications submitted for the scheme this year. “This round of funding attracted our largest ever number of applications, and the quality matched the quantity.

“I am pleased we are able to support a portfolio of projects ranging from collaborations with the arts to festival events that will engage and inspire the British public with physics.”