Maria Goeppert Mayer
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Maria Goeppert Mayer
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1963
Born: 28 June 1906, Kattowitz, Germany (now Katowice, Poland)
Died: 20 February 1972, San Diego, CA, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
Prize motivation: “for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure”
Prize share: 1/4
Life
Maria Goeppert-Mayer was born in Katowittz, which was then part of Germany. Her father became a professor at the university in Göttingen, from which Goeppert-Mayer also received her PhD in 1930. After marrying, Goeppert-Mayer migrated to the US where regulations prohibited her from accepting employment at the same university as her husband. She was affiliated with several universities, however, and worked on the American atom bomb project during World War II. Goeppert-Mayer was later made a professor at the University of California in San Diego. The Goeppert-Mayers had two children.
Work
According to modern physics, an atom consists of a nucleus made up of nucleons—protons and neutrons—surrounded by electrons distributed within shells with a fixed number of electrons. It became apparent that atomic nuclei in which the number of nucleons corresponded to full electron shells are especially stable. In 1949 Maria Goeppert Mayer and Hans Jensen developed a model in which nucleons were distributed in shells with different energy levels. The model reflected observations of directions in which nucleons rotated around their own axes and around the center of the nucleus.
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Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
