Maria Goeppert Mayer
Second woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics.
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via Wikipedia: Maria Goeppert Mayer · see source
She was born in Kattowitz, Germany (now Katowice, Poland) on June 28, 1906.[1][2] In 1963, Maria Goeppert Mayer was the last woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics, an honor she shared for discoveries regarding nuclear shell structure.[2][3]
Life and work
Goeppert was the only child of pediatrician Friedrich Göppert, a sixth-generation university professor who encouraged her curiosity.[1][4] She entered the University of Göttingen in spring 1924, initially studying mathematics, and later switched to physics after being inspired by Max Born's lectures.[5][4] During World War II she joined the Manhattan Project, researching uranium hexafluoride properties and isotope separation.[5] At age 17, she passed the Abitur a year ahead of schedule; every girl from her school succeeded on the exam, whereas only a single boy did.[6]
The theory of two-photon absorption by atoms was developed in her 1931 doctoral dissertation.[7] Joseph Edward Mayer, an American chemist, became her husband on January 19, 1930, after which she relocated to the United States.[8] In 1960, the University of California, San Diego gave her the title of Full Professor of Physics.[9][10]
What the cited sources add
A 2015 research profile notes that her father took her on science walks and showed her eclipses of the sun and moon.[4] The same profile states that after marriage she became one of the first women attempting to balance family life and physics.[4] The National Women's Hall of Fame records that Mayer was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1956.[11] The American Physical Society's Maria Goeppert Mayer Award provides $5,000 plus a travel allowance for the recipient to give lectures at up to three institutions.[12]
Argonne National Laboratory was designated an APS Historic Site by the American Physical Society in December 2018 to acknowledge Mayer's contributions.[13][14]
References
- Wikipedia, "Maria Goeppert Mayer" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ferry 2003, p. 18; Sachs 1979, p. 311; Dash 1973, p. 236; Ferry 2003, p. 18; Sachs 1979, p. 311 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Landau, "The Last Woman to Win a Physics Nobel", Scientific American. facts only, no text reused. scientificamerican.com
- Wikipedia, "Maria Goeppert Mayer" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sachs 1979, p. 311; "Nobel Prize in Physics 1963", Nobel Foundation; (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Research Profile – Maria Goeppert Mayer", Lindau Nobel Mediatheque, June 10, 2015. facts only, no text reused. mediatheque.lindau-nobel.org
- Wikipedia, "Maria Goeppert Mayer" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sachs 1979, p. 311 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Maria Goeppert Mayer" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dash 1973, p. 236 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Maria Goeppert Mayer" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Göppert-Mayer, "Über Elementarakte mit zwei Quantensprüngen", Annalen der Physik, 1931, p. 273–294; Göppert-Mayer, "Elementary processes with two quantum transitions", Annalen der Physik, August 11, 2009, p. 466–479; Sachs 1979, p. 311; Sachs 1979, p. 311; Kaiser, "Two-photon excitation in CaF<sub>2</sub>:Eu<sup>2+</sup>", Physical Review Letters, 1961, p. 229–232 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Maria Goeppert Mayer" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sachs 1979, p. 311; "Maria Goeppert-Mayer", EpiGeneSys; Dash 1973, p. 236; Dash 1973, p. 236; Sachs 1979, p. 311 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Maria Goeppert Mayer" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Nobel Prize Women who changed science Maria Goeppert Mayer", www.nobelprize.org; Landau, "The Last Woman to Win a Physics Nobel", Scientific American (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Maria Goeppert Mayer" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sachs 1979, p. 311; Ferry 2003, p. 18; Leiter Ward Leiter 2003, p. 132; Wilson 2016, p. 491 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- National Women's Hall of Fame, Maria Goeppert Mayer. facts only, no text reused. womenofthehall.org
- "Maria Goeppert Mayer Award", American Physical Society. facts only, no text reused. aps.org
- Wikipedia, "Maria Goeppert Mayer" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Maria Goeppert Mayer Award", American Physical Society; "Argonne National Laboratory Named APS Historic Site", www.aps.org; "Maria Goeppert Mayer is role model for women scientists", Argonne National Laboratory; "A Tradition Flowers: The Maria Goeppert Mayer Interdisciplinary Symposium at SDSC", San Diego Supercomputer Center; National Women's Hall of Fame, Maria Goeppert Mayer; "American Scientists", US Postal Service; "Register of Maria Goeppert Mayer Papers", University of California, San Diego; "Mayer Hall", Facilities Informa en.wikipedia.org
- "Argonne National Laboratory Named APS Historic Site", www.aps.org. facts only, no text reused. aps.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Maria Goeppert Mayer (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Maria Goeppert Mayer (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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