Biographical Memoirs Volume 50 (1979) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Maria Goeppert Mayer
Maria Goeppert Mayer
Pages 310-329
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 311... ...
This accomplishment had its beginnings in her early exposure to an intense atmosphere of science, both at home and in the surrounding university community, a community providing her with the opportunity to follow her inclinations and to develop her remarkable talents under the guidance of the great teachers and scholars of mathematics and physics. Throughout her full and gracious life, her science continued to be the theme about which her activities were centered, and it culminated in her major contribution to the understanding of the structure of the atomic nucleus, the spin-orbit coupling shell model of nuclei.
|
From page 312... ...
David Hilbert was an immediate neighbor and friend of the family. Max Born came to Gottingen in 1921 and James Franck followed soon after; both were close friends of the Goeppert family.
|
From page 313... ...
Therefore, in 1921 she left the public elementary school to enter the Frauenstudium, a small private school run by sufragettes to prepare those few girls who wanted to seek admission to the University for the required examination. The school closed its doors before the full three-year program was completed, but she decided to take the University entrance examination promptly in spite of her truncated formal preparation.
|
From page 314... ...
Herzfeld was an expert in classical theory, especially kinetic theory and thermodynamics, and he had a particular interest in what has come to be known as chemical physics. This was also Joseph Mayer's primary field of interest, and under his and Herzfeld's guidance and influence Maria Mayer became actively involved in
|
From page 315... ...
During the early years in Baltimore, she spent the summers of 1931, 1932, and 1933 back in Gottingen, where she worked with her former teacher, Max Born. In the first of those summers she completed with him their article in the Handbuch der Physik, "Dynamische Gittertheorie der Kristalle." In 1935 she published her important paper on double beta-decay, representing a direct application of techniques she had used for her thesis, but in an entirely different context.
|
From page 316... ...
Her approach to quantum mechanics, having been so greatly influenced by Born, gave preference to matrix mechanics over Schroedinger wave mechanics. She was very quick with matrix manipulations and the use of symmetry arguments to obtain answers to a specific problem, and this ability stood her in good stead in her later work on nuclear shell structure, which led to her Nobel Prize.
|
From page 317... ...
Her facility with the methods of theoretical physics was overwhelming to most of the graduate students, in whom she inspired a considerable amount of awe. At the same time, the students took a rather romantic view of this young scientific couple, known as " Joe and Maria," and felt that it was a great loss when they left Johns Hopkins to go to Columbia University in 1939.
|
From page 318... ...
In February of 1946, the Mayers moved to Chicago where Joe had been appointed Professor in both the Chemistry Department and the newly formed Institute for Nuclear Studies of The University of Chicago. At the time, the University's nepotism rules did not permit the hiring of both husband and wife in faculty positions, but Maria became a voluntary Associate Professor of Physics in the Institute, a position which gave
|
From page 319... ...
She continued to hold this part-time appointment throughout her years in Chicago, while maintaining her voluntary appointment at the University. The Argonne appointment was the source of financial support for her work during this very productive period of her life, a period in which she made her major contribution to the field of nuclear physics, the nuclear shell model, which earned her the Nobel Prize.
|
From page 320... ...
The activities in the Institute reflected the interests of the leading lights, interests that were very broad indeed, ranging from nuclear physics and chemistry to astrophysics and from cosmology to geophysics. The interdisciplinary character of the Institute was well suited to the breadth of her own activities over the past, so that her Chicago years were the culmination of her variety of scientific experience.
|
From page 321... ...
They suggested the notion of stable "shells" in nuclei similar to the stable electron shells associated with atomic structure, but the prevailing wisdom of the time was that a shell structure in nuclei was most unlikely because of the short range of nuclear forces as compared to the long-range coulomb forces holding electrons in atoms. There was the further difficulty that the magic numbers did not fit simple-minded ideas associated with the quantum mechanics of shell structure.
|
From page 322... ...
Her ability to immediately recognize spin-orbit coupling as the source of the correct numerology was a direct consequence of her mathematical understanding of quantum mechanics and especially of her great facility with the numerics of the representations of the rotation group. This ability to instantly identify the key numerical relationships was most impressive, and even Fermi was surprised at how quickly she realized that his auestion was the key to the problems 1 While she was preparing the spin-orbit coupling model for ~ Joseph Mayer gives the following description of this episode: "Fermi and Maria were talking in her office when Enrico was called out of the office to answer the telephone on a long distance call.
|
From page 323... ...
Maria Mayer and Jensen were not acquainted with one another at the time, and they did not meet until her visit to Germany in 1950. In 1951 on a second visit, she and Jensen had the opportunity to start a collaboration on further interpretation of the spin-orbit coupling shell model, and this was the beginning of a close friendship as well as a very productive scientific effort.
|
From page 324... ...
In addition to being elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1956 and receiving the Nobel Prize in 1963, Maria Goeppert Mayer's honors included being elected a Corresponding Member of the Akademieder Wissenschaften in Heidelberg and receiving honorary degrees of Doctor of Science from Russell Sage College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith College.
|
From page 325... ...
1931 Ober Elementarakte mit zwei Quantensprungen. Annalen der Physik, 9~2)
|
From page 326... ...
Calculation of equilibrium constants for isotopic exchange reactions.
|
From page 327... ...
Elementary Theory of Nuclear Shell Structure. N.Y.: John Wiley & Sons.
|
From page 328... ...
The shell model. In: Les Prix Nobel en 1963.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.