Born: 28 June 1906 · Died: 20 February 1972 · Age: 65
Nobel Prize-winning physicist who proposed the nuclear shell model
Did you know?She was only the second woman in history to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics, following Marie Curie.
Quick facts
Date of birth28 June 1906
Date of death20 February 1972
Age at death65
Cause of deathCirculatory collapse
NationalityGerman-American
BirthplaceKatowice, Poland
Occupationphysicist, nuclear physicist, university teacher
Editor's Take:
Maria Goeppert Mayer did Nobel-winning work while universities refused to pay her properly. Her husband's jobs came first, and she worked as a volunteer for years. She explained why certain 'magic numbers' of protons and neutrons make nuclei unusually stable. Her answer was a shell model similar to that of electrons. Only in 1960 did she finally receive a full paid professorship. Three years later she won the Nobel Prize.
Key Milestones
1930: Completes her doctorate at Göttingen
1942: Joins work on the Manhattan Project
1949: Publishes the nuclear shell model
1963: Wins the Nobel Prize in Physics
Maria Goeppert Mayer (German:; née Göppert; June 28, 1906 – February 20, 1972) was a German–American theoretical physicist who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Wigner.
Maria Göppert Mayer's birthday is June 28. She was born on June 28, 1906 in Katowice, Poland.
How old was Maria Göppert Mayer when she died?
Maria Göppert Mayer died on February 20, 1972, aged 65.
Who shares a birthday with Maria Göppert Mayer?
Famous people who share Maria Göppert Mayer's June 28 birthday include Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Elon Musk, Peter Paul Rubens, Luigi Pirandello and Muhammad Yunus.
