Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1906-1972)

Awarded the Prize “for her discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure.”

American physicist. Maria Goeppert-Mayer was born at Kattowitz (now in Pol) on June 28, 1906. She entered the University of Gottingen from which obtained her Ph.D. in 1930. In the same year, she emigrated to the United States naturalized as an American citizen in 1933. She was employed at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, the Argonne National Laboratory the University of California. Mayer died in San Diego, California on February 20, 1972.