Abstract
<jats:p>This chapter follows Friedrich Adolf Paneth’s path from chemical training to research on radioactivity. After studying in Vienna and Munich, passing the 1908 Verbandsexamen, and completing his doctorate with Zdenko Skraup, Paneth deliberately turned away from organic chemistry after Skraup’s death. In 1911 he began working at the Vienna Radium Institute under Stefan Meyer, initially as an unpaid chemistry assistant in an experimentally demanding and already highly competitive field.</jats:p> <jats:p>The chapter focuses on Paneth’s early work on “radium D,” his collaboration with George de Hevesy on the radium D/lead problem, and the beginning of a lifelong scientific friendship. A planned stay in Great Britain with Ernest Rutherford and Frederick Soddy was intended to introduce Paneth to gas analysis, but it ended unexpectedly early when Paneth returned to Austria for his engagement to Else Hartmann.</jats:p>