M. Göppert-Mayer (June 28, 1906 – February 20, 1972), the German-born American theoretical physicist proposed the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus and in 1963 became the second woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics. Goeppert-Mayer’s mathematical model explained why certain numbers of nucleons (protons and neutrons) in a nucleus result in stable atomic configurations. Her contributions were celebrated by her appointment as full Professor of Physics at the University of California and her election as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In the spring of 1924 she enrolled at the University at Göttingen, with the intention of becoming a mathematician. But soon she found herself more attracted to physics. This was the time when quantum mechanics was young and exciting.
Strict rules against nepotism prevented Johns Hopkins University from hiring Goeppert Mayer as a faculty member. These rules, created at many universities to prevent patronage, had by this time lost their original purpose and were primarily used to prevent the employment of women married to faculty members. She was given a job as an assistant in the physics department working with German correspondence, for which she received a very small salary, a place to work and access to the facilities. She taught some courses, and published an important paper on double beta decay in 1935.
There was little interest in quantum mechanics at Johns Hopkins but Goeppert Mayer worked on this area. They collaborated on a number of papers, including a paper with Herzfeld’s student A.L. Sklar on the spectrum of benzene. She also returned to Göttingen in the summers of 1931, 1932 and 1933 to work with her former examiner Born, writing an article with him for the Handbuch der Physik (Encyclopedia of physics) and her research work on Elementary processes with two quantum transitions revolutionazlied quantum mechanics.
In 1939 they went to Columbia. Dr. Goeppert Mayer taught at Sarah Lawrence College between 1941 and 1945, but she worked mainly at the S.A.M. Laboratory, on the separation of isotopes of uranium. In 1946 they went to Chicago. This was the first place where she was not considered a nuisance, but greeted with open arms. She became a Professor in the Physics Department and in the Institute for Nuclear Studies. She was also employed by the Argonne National Laboratory to work on Nuclear Physics.
In 1960 they came to La Jolla where Maria Goeppert Mayer is a professor of physics. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a corresponding member of the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Heidelberg. She has received honorary degrees of Doctor of Science from Russel Sage College, Mount Holyoke College and Smith College.
Goeppert Mayer wrote her doctoral thesis on the theory of possible two-photon absorption by atoms. At the time, the chances of experimentally verifying her thesis seemed remote, but the development of the laser in the 1960s later permitted this. Today, the unit for the two-photon absorption cross section is named the Goeppert Mayer (GM) unit.
After her death, the Maria Goeppert Mayer Award was created by the American Physical Society (APS) to honor young female physicists at the beginning of their careers. Open to all female physicists who hold PhDs, the winner receives money and the opportunity to give guest lectures about her research at major institutions. In December 2018, the APS named Argonne National Laboratory an APS Historic Site in recognition of her work. Argonne National Laboratory also honors her by presenting an award each year to an outstanding young woman scientist or engineer, while the University of California, San Diego hosts an annual Maria Goeppert Mayer symposium, bringing together female researchers to discuss current science. Crater Goeppert Mayer on Venus, which has a diameter of about 35 km, is also named after Goeppert-Mayer. In 1996, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. In 2011, she was included in the third issuance of the American Scientists collection of US postage stamps. Her papers are in the Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego, and the university’s physics department is housed in Mayer Hall, which is named after her.
SheQuantum salutes this great woman physicist, M. Göppert-Mayer for her immense contributions towards physics and quantum mechanics.
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