MARIA GOEPPERT MAYER
Final Years
After Fermi's death in 1954, other members of the Institute for Nuclear Studies
who had provided so much stimulation for her left Chicago. Teller had gone
earlier in 1952, Libby left in 1954, and Urey in 1958. In 1960 she accepted a
regular appointment as Professor of Physics at the University of California at
San Diego when both she and her husband had the opportunity to go there.
Her appointment as a full professor in her own right at a major university was
very gratifying to her, and she looked forward to the stimulation of this newest
interdisciplinary group of scientists that was being drawn together there.
However, shortly after arriving in San Diego, she had a stroke, and her years
there were marked by continuing problems with her health.
Nevertheless, she continued to teach and to participate actively in the
development and exposition of the shell model. Her last publication, a review of
the shell model written in collaboration with Jensen, appeared in 1966; and she
continued to give as much attention to physics as she could until her death in
early 1972.
In addition to being elected to the National Academy of
Sciences in 1956 and receiving the Nobel Prize in 1963,
Maria Goeppert Mayer's honors included being elected a Corresponding
Member of the Akademieder Wissenschaften in Heidelberg and receiving
honorary degrees of Doctor of Science from Russell Sage College, Mount
Holyoke College, and Smith College.