Title: Berta Karlik

Austrian physics and mathematics, she won a scholarship from the International Federation of University Women to study in the world's most prestigious laboratories, with renowned scientists (Meitner among others)

She was the first female Professor at the University of Vienna (1956) where she taught since 1945. In 1931 she began to work at the City Radius Institute and she was director in 1947.

Thanks to her knowledge of oceanography and radioactivity she contributed to raising awareness of the problem of uranium contamination in sea water.

In 1943, she identified the astatine (At) in mineral samples produced by natural decay processes. This element had been first synthesized in 1940 by Emilio Segrès team at Berkeley

Astatine is the rarest element on Earth. On this planet there are only about 50 grams of very short-lived isotopes. It is highly unstable and radioactive. It is a potential candidate for the creation of radiopharmaceuticals for cancer radiotherapy..