Maria Goeppert Mayer

Maria Goeppert Mayer, born on June 28, 1906, was a pioneering German-American theoretical physicist renowned for her groundbreaking contributions to nuclear physics. She made history as the second woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963, sharing the honor with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Wigner for their significant discoveries regarding nuclear shell structure. Her achievements not only advanced the field of physics but also paved the way for future generations of women in science.

A graduate of the University of Göttingen, Goeppert Mayer's doctoral thesis focused on the theory of two-photon absorption by atoms. Although the experimental verification of her work seemed unlikely at the time, the advent of laser technology in the 1960s eventually validated her theories. In recognition of her contributions, the unit for the two-photon absorption cross section was named the Goeppert Mayer (GM) unit.

After marrying American chemist Joseph Edward Mayer, she relocated to the United States, where she faced challenges due to strict nepotism policies at Johns Hopkins University. Despite these obstacles, she published a landmark paper on double beta decay in 1935 and later took an unpaid position at Columbia University. During World War II, she contributed to the Manhattan Project and collaborated with Edward Teller at the Los Alamos Laboratory on thermonuclear weapons development.

Following the war, Goeppert Mayer became a voluntary Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago and a senior physicist at Argonne National Laboratory. Her innovative mathematical model for nuclear shell structure ultimately earned her the Nobel Prize. In 1960, she was appointed Full Professor of Physics at the University of California, San Diego, further solidifying her legacy in the scientific community.