Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972) is one of just four women to ever win the Nobel Prize in physics for her groundbreaking development of a mathematical model for the structure of nuclear cells.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know -- but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Leading Ladies, Activists, STEMinists, Hometown Heroes, and many more. Encyclopedia Womannica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Encyclopedia Womannica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Cinthia Pimentel, Grace Lynch, and Maddy Foley. Special thanks to Shira Atkins, Edie Allard, Luisa Garbowit, and Carmen Borca-Carrillo.
We are offering free ad space on Wonder Media Network shows to organizations working towards social justice. For more information, please email Jenny at jenny@wondermedianetwork.com.
Follow Wonder Media Network:
Our STEMinist today is one of just four women to ever win the Nobel Prize in physics for her groundbreaking development of a mathematical model for the structure of nuclear cells. Despite her genius, she struggled throughout her career to find positions that would even pay, and yet somehow persevered in making one of the most important Physics discoveries of the 20th century. We’re talking about Maria Goeppert Mayer.
Maria Goeppert was born on June 28, 1906, in Kattowitz, then in Germany, to Friedrich and Maria Goeppert. Soon after Maria was born, the family moved to Gottingen.
An only child, Maria grew up in a family of academics. Her father was a sixth generation professor who taught pediatrics at the local university and who shared his love of learning with his precocious daughter. Despite the fact that academia was not generally thought of as a place for women at that time, Maria was encouraged to learn.
Maria later said, “My father said, ‘Don’t grow up to be a woman,’ and what he meant by that was, a housewife.”
In 1924, Maria enrolled at the University of Göttingen, where she intended to study math but quickly decided to major in physics, instead, after attending a seminar taught by the famous physicist Max Born. At that time, women made up less than one tenth of university students in Germany.
While Maria may have been in the extreme minority as a woman physicist, she was part of an incredible era of physics at the university. In addition to Max Born, Werner Heisenberg was also on faculty and future luminaries Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi were fellow students.
In 1930, Maria left the university with her PhD in physics. Her thesis was on double photon reactions. Maria left with something else, too: A husband. She had met and married Joseph Mayer, an American physical chemist, while the two were at the university.
Soon after, Joseph was offered a job at Johns Hopkins University, so he and Maria moved to Baltimore, Maryland. Maria worked there too, but as a volunteer. Because her husband was employed by the university, anti-nepotism rules meant that she couldn’t be paid by the university. Still, Maria kept working. She collaborated with her husband and others studying organic molecules.
In 1933, Maria became a U.S. citizen.
Six years later, in 1939, Joseph got a job at Columbia University in New York City. Once again, Maria worked there too. But while Maria was at least given an office this time around, she continued to receive no salary. Maria also taught at Sarah Lawrence College.
With the advent of WWII, Maria was tapped by a different kind of employer: The U.S. Government. During World War II, Maria worked on bomb research and was part of the Manhattan Project. She later said that she felt relieved that her part of the project was unsuccessful. Unlike many of her colleagues, she didn’t have to feel the guilt of aiding in the creation of the atomic bombs.
In 1946, the couple moved to Chicago once again for Joseph’s work, and again Maria worked without pay, this time at the University of Chicago. She also got a part time paid job at Argonne National Laboratory.
In Chicago, Maria partnered with fellow scientist Edward Teller to determine the origins of the elements. In the course of this work, Maria discovered what later came to be known as magic numbers. She saw that nuclei with certain numbers of protons or neutrons were particularly stable. That stability made her think that perhaps nuclei had a shell structure similar to the shell-structure of electrons in atoms. Maria theorized that inside a nucleus, spinning protons and neutrons are situated in orbiting layers. When the spin and orbit are aligned, the nucleus has less energy. When they are not aligned, the nucleus has more energy. This became known as the Nuclear Shell Model.
Maria was not the first person to notice that certain nuclei were more stable than others, but she was the first to develop a working mathematical model of the structure of nuclear cells. Other scientists who were also working on this problem were biased towards a different theory to describe the structure of the nucleus.
Maria wrote a paper to describe her findings, but soon learned that another group of scientists led by Hans Jensen had come to very similar conclusions. She asked that the journal Physical Review hold her paper so that the submissions could be published at the same time. In the end, Maria’s article came out a month after the article from Hans Jensen.
Nevertheless, Maria and Hans Jensen later met and became colleagues, working together on a book about the nuclear shell model that was published in 1955.
In 1960, Maria was finally hired as a full professor at the University of California, San Diego.
Three years later, in 1963, Maria and Hans Jensen won the Nobel Prize in physics for their work on the nuclear shell model. She is one of just four women to have ever received that honor.
On February 20th, 1972, in San Diego, Maria died. She had suffered from a stroke years before and never fully recovered. She was 65 years old.
All month, we’re talking about STEMinists. For more on why we’re doing what we’re doing, check out our newsletter, Womannica Weekly. Follow Encyclopedia Womannica on facebook and instagram @encyclopediawomannica.