That move marked the beginning of a paradoxical professional career. That same year, in 1930, she married Joseph Mayer, an American chemistry student, and emigrated to Baltimore (USA), where her husband had been hired by Johns Hopkins University. Credit: Institución Smithsonian From volunteer to the Manhattan ProjectĪfter completing her studies, she graduated with an innovative thesis in which she theoretically explained the double photon process (the simultaneous absorption of two photons by an atom), something that would only be confirmed experimentally three decades later. Maria Goeppert-Mayer was escorted by King Gustav Adolf of Sweden to a gala banquet following the Nobel Prize ceremony. Eventually, Maria decided to study physics however, she never gave up her first passion and, in fact, her solid mathematical background was a formidable ally throughout her career, allowing her to reach theoretical explanations of processes that could not be proven experimentally until many years later. In 1924 she passed the university entrance exam and was admitted as a student of mathematics, but that initial interest soon clashed with that aroused by quantum physics, then in a golden age, after attending a seminar given by Max Born. It was here that Maria Goeppert-Mayer (28 June 1906 – 20 February 1972) chose her vocation. This long road, full of obstacles, began when Maria’s father became professor of paediatrics at the prestigious University of Gottingen (Germany), then a world leader in the study of mathematics and physics. Goeppert shone in a field traditionally reserved for men -until 2018 this prize did not recognize another woman- and it was only after a long scientific career “on loan” that she would receive recognition: she spent many years without being paid for her research or her work as a university professor. Her mastery of the mathematics that govern quantum mechanics led her to this feat, which was a decisive boost for nuclear and particle physics. She was Maria Goeppert-Mayer, the German-born scientist who formulated the nuclear shell model that finally made it possible to understand how the nucleus of atoms works. It took exactly 60 years from Marie Curie winning the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 for a woman to receive the award again.
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