Maria Goeppert Mayer

German-born American theoretical physicist (1906-1972)

Maria Goeppert Mayer (June 28, 1906 – February 20, 1972) was a German-born American theoretical physicist, and Nobel Laureate in Physics. The nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus was her idea. She was the second woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics. Marie Curie was the first.

Mayer died on February 20, 1972 at a hospital in California, United States at the age of 65.