INTRODUCTION - THE EARLY YEARS 
  
 
Of all the women scientists we are talking about today, Maria 
Goeppert Mayer is certainly among the most well known. Her story has 
been told in several biographies. Therefore I shall not discuss at length 
the detailed chronology of her life and experiences, which is readily 
available elsewhere.  So I will emphasize her contributions in nuclear 
physics, and, in particular the nuclear shell model.  
Photo of MGM.  My talk is in three parts: Early Years (To 1945), 
S.A.M. as Graduate Student, MGM and Nuclear Shell Model MGM 
born in Germany in 1906. She completed her doctoral work in 
Goettingen in 1930, and in that year she married Joe Mayer who was in 
Goettingen on a fellowship. She was accomplished physicist even 
before getting into nuclear physics.  They came to the US a few years 
later, and worked at Johns Hopkins University. (She did not have a 
regular position there.)  They wrote a 
textbook on Statistical Mechanics in 1930's. It was very good, in fact, 
one of the standard textbooks used in Stat. Mech courses, including the 
one at U of Chicago, which I took, (She was not the instructor.)  

1930's worse than now. Bad depression. Jobs were extremely hard 
to find. WWII coming.  Not clear democracy would survive. Also, there 
was a "Stop Science" movement.   In 1990's jobs are also very hard to 
find. But in other ways, it is not as bad as in 1930's.  Also, MGM did 
not have easy time positionwise. There were anti-nepotism rules in 
many  places. However, even Joe had trouble. He was fired from Johns 
Hopkins University due to economic reasons. In WWII MGM got 
involved in the Manhattan project. That's how, in 1947, I got to know 
her.  S.A.M. as Graduate Student. I was born in Germany. My family 
and I left and came over as refugees in 
1939, just before the war broke out. Actually, we came via Holland, and 
got out of there just before the Germans invaded in 1940. I did High 
School and College. (There was a 4 year college at the University of 
Chicago, where you entered as Junior and completed with a B.S.) It is 
wellknown that in Dec. 2 1942, the first nuclear reactor went critical at 
the U.of C. I was actually taking gym classes in Stagg field, which is 
where the reactor was. But, of course, I had not the slightest idea of 
what was going on there. In fact, I 
was going into Math, with Physics as minor. In 1946, I was drafted into 
the U.S. Army. For personal reasons, I was actually glad to get away 
from Chicago. And there I learned typing, which is coming in handy in 
the information age. My mother, however, was quite concerned about 
me, and, without out my knowledge, contacted a Chemist friend of hers. 
This man happened to know Robert Sachs, who was looking for people 
to work on the Manhattan Project. Sachs had been Maria Mayer's first 
student. (In fact, 
he is now 80, and hopefully tomorrow I will attend a lunch in his honor 
in Chicago.) So, one day, I was transferred from Virginia to Chicago. I 
found the work, which involved pounding a 1940's typecalculator 
(Monroe, Marchant, etc.) quite interesting. Later, I decided to do 
graduate studies in Physics at the U.C. That's how I started to work 
with Maria Mayer in 1949.
  
 
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