“We should remember and fiercely protect the progress that has been made for women in science”

Suropriya Saha from the Max Planck Institute of Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, about the theoretical physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer, who won the Physics Nobel Prize in 1963

On November 5, 1963, Maria Goeppert Mayer was awakened early in the morning by a telephone call. “But I do not know anyone in Stockholm,” she wondered, while her husband, Joseph Mayer, was already on his way to put a bottle of champagne on ice. There was a reason to celebrate: the Nobel Prize, awarded for her discoveries on nuclear shell structure. Goeppert Mayer became the second woman to receive the prize, 60 years after Marie Curie, and the first to receive it for her achievements in theoretical physics.

Maria Gertrude Kaete Goeppert was born in 1906 in Katowice, Germany (now Poland), as the only child of paediatrician Friedrich Goeppert and his wife Maria Wolff, a French teacher and gifted pianist. She grew up in Göttingen, where her father held a professorship, coming from a family of six generations of university professors. It was naturally expected in her family that she would pursue higher education. At the University of Göttingen, she initially studied mathematics and later, inspired by Max Born’s seminar on quantum mechanics, switched her major to physics.

The year 1930 marked a turning point in Maria’s life. Under Born’s guidance, she successfully completed her doctoral thesis on double-proton processes, married the American chemist Joseph Edward Mayer, who was in Göttingen on a Rockefeller fellowship, and moved with him to the United States, where he had been offered a professorship at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. It was the time of the Great Depression, and many American universities had strengthened anti-nepotism policies, which forbade the hiring of professors' wives at the same institution. While touted as a response to widespread unemployment in the country, some historians argue that these actions were actually motivated by a desire to maintain traditional gender roles in view of growing women's liberation. The restrictions on dual employment would haunt Goeppert Mayer throughout her academic career. Only in 1959, at the age of 53, was she offered her first full-paid professorship at the University of California, San Diego.

Nevertheless, she continued to conduct unpaid research and teaching. At each university where her husband was offered a position, she worked on a “volunteer” basis. At Johns Hopkins, she focused on applying quantum mechanics to chemistry and collaborated with other scientists, including her husband, on molecular physics. In the 1930s, the Mayers became parents to two children and jointly wrote Statistical Mechanics, which became a classic. After the outbreak of World War II, Goeppert Mayer was offered several part-time jobs. She taught at a college for women and was also involved in top-secret research on atomic and hydrogen bombs. She later expressed relief that her contribution to the Manhattan Project had failed. She advocated for science to be free from state control, and was strongly opposed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

After the war, the Mayers moved to Chicago, where Maria became a member of the physics department at the Argonne National Laboratory in 1946. The primary focus of research there was nuclear physics, a field in which she had little experience but threw herself into with enthusiasm. Within a few years, she tackled the mystery of “magic numbers” that made certain elements more stable than others. By picturing the nucleons as arranged in shells and considering strong spin-orbit coupling, she  explained the stable sequence of numbers in a framework called the nuclear shell model. To help her daughter grasp the idea of spin-orbital coupling, she used an analogy with waltz dancers, where each pair circles the room while also spinning around their own axis.

This model of nuclear shell structure was independently developed by Johannes Hans D. Jensen and his team in Germany. Goeppert Mayer and Jensen met for the first time in 1951 and began a collaboration that resulted in the publication of their book Elementary Theory of Nuclear Shell Structure in 1955. They shared the Nobel Prize with Eugene Wigner, who laid the foundation for understanding the atomic nucleus.

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Maria Goeppert Mayer and you both have connections to Göttingen. What else about Goeppert Mayer resonates with you particularly?

Maria’s parents played a very important role in her life, creating a bubble for her in which she could pursue her dreams, shielded from the political turmoil in the world outside and freeing her from societal expectations in her early life. I think my parents did something very similar for me—always encouraging me to pursue my dreams, however far-fetched! My mother’s side of the family has a long tradition of being in academics and medicine, so carrying on her family tradition is also something I have in common with Maria. Another aspect that really strikes a chord is that Maria enjoyed solving scientific problems “for fun”—and that’s how I feel about science as well.

She was awarded the Nobel Prize for her discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure. Can you share with us a brief overview of her research outcomes on the way to her main contribution to the field of physics and their relevance today?

Maria did not have a conventional career at all! I like the way the author José Manuel Sánchez Ron describes her path in science as a fine-tuned “sailboat” that was forced to move with the current—from quantum mechanics in her PhD days, to quantum chemistry, statistical physics, and finally finding her harbour in nuclear physics when she proposed the shell model. Although she was not prolific in terms of quantity, as a physicist myself, I am truly amazed by the range and quality of her research. She described the complex two-photon absorption and emission process, formulating for the first time the concept of a virtual particle. This early work led to the development of the multi-photon laser and laid the foundation for the field of nonlinear optics. The unit for two-photon absorption cross-section is called GM in her honour.

She became fascinated by the stability of nuclei with "magic numbers"

Later in her career, while working with Alfred Sklar and Herzfeld at Johns Hopkins, she applied her expertise in many-particle quantum systems to analyse the molecular spectra of benzene, a masterpiece in quantum chemistry. In the next stage of her career, she became fascinated by the stability of nuclei with "magic numbers"—2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, etc., of protons or neutrons. She realised that the atomic shell model could be modified by taking spin-orbital coupling into account to describe nuclear shells with an optimum number of nucleons, a theory that is called the nuclear shell model, a theoretical framework relevant today.

Maria was educated in Göttingen, the city of Gauss, Riemann, Klein, and Hilbert. Göttingen was considered the world centre of mathematics and physics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Do you think this was decisive for her success?

Absolutely. Maria grew up among distinguished mathematicians and physicists, who were close friends of the Goepperts, in an inspiring atmosphere full of deep dedication to science..For example, she used to watch David Hilbert in a neighbouring garden, who often had scientific discussions with his assistants and visitors outdoors, on a sheltered blackboard. It was from Hilbert that Maria learnt about atomic structure when she skipped her school classes to attend Hilbert’s semi-popular-level lectures.

From Max Born, who became both a collaborator and friend, she adapted a particular mathematical approach to physical problems, preferring matrix mechanics over wave mechanics. Besides Born, two other Nobel Prize winners, James Franck and Adolf Windaus, were members of her PhD examination committee. I think being in Göttingen as a physicist during the mid-1920s and early 1930s was like being in a scientific paradise. There was a constant flow of visitors, and scientific exchange was exceptional. The fact that 15 later Nobel Prize winners in physics and chemistry were students or assistants in Göttingen between 1900 and 1930 highlights the spirit of the time and place. Very likely, all of this shaped Maria’s development as a physicist. For young Maria, the future seemed bright, and she was confident in her education and abilities.

Beyond the challenges posed by the anti-nepotism rules, what other obstacles did she face as a woman in science at that time? What do you think helped her in overcoming  these barriers?

Even in Göttingen, it was not easy for a girl to pass the Abitur (the university qualification exam) and gain access to higher education at that time. She attended a private ‘suffragettes school’ run by women activists, but it went bankrupt. There was no alternative, so she pulled all the strings to take her exam one year earlier than usual, at age 17, as an external student in Hanover, and passed it!

As a woman in those times, the support Maria received from her family and her spouse was crucial. Her father was a doctor, and the Goeppert family had six generations of professors, a legacy that was very inspiring to her. Her father famously encouraged her to grow up to be “more than a woman” , meaning more than a housewife. Her husband, Joe Mayer, himself a celebrated chemist, appreciated her role as a partner in both science and life. His expertise in chemistry sparked her interest in experimental science—something not very common among quantum mechanics practitioners at the time, setting her apart from her peers. I should add that pursuing a scientific career is gruelling , as job security is often elusive, especially in one’s thirties or even forties. In the absence of security, we rely on a supportive network of friends and family to help us overcome the inherent challenges of academia.

Luckily, she escaped the hardships of war in Europe, particularly in Germany. She was in the right place at the right time, as the centre of nuclear physics shifted from Göttingen in Germany to Chicago in the USA, where many German physicists took refuge.

What personal traits helped Maria in her journey? Can those be emulated by young scientists today?

She was passionately interested and completely immersed in science. She was a great team-player and good at communication — skills that remain important  today, as science thrives in strongly collaborative environments. In her career, she had the stimulus of big universities such as Johns Hopkins and the University of Chicago, but without the advantages of a permanent position. She made up for these obstacles by always being in touch with great physicists of the time, such as Teller, Fermi, and Urey, who supported her work. Fermi, for example, declined, for good reason, to be a co-author on the paper for which she was later awarded the Nobel Prize.

Despite her gentle nature, she was fiercely protective of her work and set boundaries with her collaborators, while still being fair to them. It is key in all ages, past or present, to stand up for our own self. Furthermore, Maria was highly adaptable, diving into any scientific problem that came her way. She was an ‘interdisciplinary’ scientist, before the term was actually known! In this respect she was way ahead of her time. 

A lot has changed since the 1960s, but what do you see as the most significant barriers that women in physics still face today? Do you think we need a structural change in science and academia to increase the proportion of women?

The glass ceiling that women face largely exists because an academic career demands complete focus during the same years that are also critical for  starting and raising a family - resulting in the "leaky pipeline" problem. Many aspects have changed. For example the support that I personally received when I was pregnant and after the birth of my daughter, in the form of health-care, financial support, supportive employer and peers, and childcare were essential to keep me in research.  Such resources  should be universally accessible.   

We need to rethink the work culture and to focus on team spirit instead of competition

There is still scope for improvement! We need to rethink the work culture and to focus on team spirit instead of competition. There needs to be greater contractual job security for young scientists, more flexible qualification paths, and dual-careers. These changes would also help women with multiple responsibilities to succeed in academia.

You mentioned that like Maria you also do research for “fun”. What is it that you love most about science? Was there any project so far you were working on that you loved most? What motivates you in difficult times?

I love the excitement of a sudden new insight! It is extremely exciting when the pieces of a puzzle, supremely important to me at the moment (though very likely of moderate interest to others), fit together and everything makes sense. I will never forget the moment in October 2019, when I was working on simulations of non-reciprocally coupled fields, and the fields started oscillating on the computer screen.

Maria’s husband mentioned that her numbers are “magic, yet real”. This sentence perfectly sums up science for me, the magically, intuitive way in which facets of thoughts come together through equations to describe real phenomena. Motivation comes from the moments that I described above and the hope that such moments will recur.

Before their marriage, Joe Mayer promised Maria to hire a maid, so she could continue in science. How do you balance your private and family life with your career?

Currently, I am still working on it! It is the first thing on my priority list to attain that balance. I am looking at resources to be more efficient and try to switch off from science when I’m at  home. My struggles with balance also point to the need for structural changes.

Maria was a pioneer for women in science, advocating for women’s participation in physics and other STEM fields. Do you think it is important to design the work environment in such a way that one is reminded of the stories of role models like Maria?

Maria, for example, learnt from the experiences of Hertha Sponer and Emmy Noether in Göttingen, and Lise Meitner in Berlin, who had faced difficulties in finding a position in science. She thought of an alternative and,  figured that she would do better in the U.S., a plan that ultimately worked for her.

Although a lot has changed, we should not forget the long path still ahead for women in achieving  a more balanced and fairer academic world. We should remember and fiercely protect the progress that has been achieved. For example, our department’s library is named after Emmy Noether, with a poster hanging next to it, and our main seminar rooms are  named after Meitner and Goeppert Mayer.

If you were to summarize your message for girls and women in STEM, what would that message be?

The most important prerequisite for science is - interest! If science engages and interests you, go and explore! STEM has something for every disposition - the creative, the methodical, and even the social. It’s essential to have fun with it. Gender, whether male, female, or non-binary, is irrelevant: the scientific community benefits from all perspectives and approaches.

Suropriya, thank you very much for this interview!

The interview was conducted by Viktoryia Novak, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Department of Living Matter Physics, Göttingen.

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References

Articles

[1] Edwards, Katharine, "Anti-Nepotism" Policies at the University of Washington in the Depression, The Great Depression in Washington State Project. Retrieved on 18.10.2024 from https://depts.washington.edu/depress/women_uw_working_wives.shtml

[2] Goeppert-Mayer, Maria (June 1949). “On Closed Shells in Nuclei. II”. Physical Review. 75 (12): 1969–1970.

[3] Johnson, Karen E.; Maria Goeppert Mayer: Atoms, Molecules and Nuclear Shells. Physics Today 1 September 1986; 39 (9): 44–49. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.881041

[4] Masters, B.R. and So, P.T.C. (2004), Antecedents of two-photon excitation laser scanning microscopy. Microsc. Res. Tech., 63: 3-11. https://doi.org/10.1002/jemt.10418

[5] Sachs R. G. (1979), Maria Goeppert Mayer : June 28, 1906-February 20, 1972. National Academy of Sciences. https://www.physics.ucla.edu/~moszkowski/mgm/rgsmgm4.htm

[6] Ron, José Manuel Sánchez (2020), Maria Goeppert Mayer: From Göttingen to the Nobel Prize in Physics, Spanish Nuclear Safety Council

Books

[7] Dash, J. (1973), A Life of One’s Own: Three Gifted Women and the Men They Married, Harper & Row

[8] von Wallwitz, G. (2017), Meine Herren, dies ist keine Badeanstalt: Wie ein Mathematiker die Welt veränderte. Berenberg

[9] Wuensch, D. (2013), Der letzte Physiknobelpreis für eine Frau? Maria Goeppert Mayer: Eine Göttingerin erobert die Atomkerne: Nobelpreis 1963: zum 50. Jubiläum, Termessos Verlag

Other

[10] The Nobel Prize Media, Women who changed science. Retrieved on 16.10.2024 from https://www.nobelprize.org/womenwhochangedscience/stories/maria-goeppert-mayer