RUI: A Marriage of Equals, the Scientific Lives of Joseph and Maria Goeppert Mayer

Saint Lawrence University, Canton NY

Investigators

Abstract

Nobel Prize winner and physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer and her husband, chemist Joseph Mayer, worked in different disciplines, pursued different fields of research, and rarely published collaborative work. A close scrutiny of their scientific careers reveals, however, that over time Joseph Mayer began to approach the study of chemistry from the perspective of a physicist in his attempts to incorporate statistical mechanics into physical chemistry, and Maria Goeppert Mayer began to approach physics from the perspective of a chemist in her development of the nuclear shell model. This intellectual interaction illustrates a form of collaboration in science that has not been adequately explored in the historical literature. Historians of science have tended to focus on the evolution of scientific theories in two different ways: either as intellectual history, emphasizing the intellectual paths followed by individual scientists, or as a social phenomenon transcending the intellectual life of any individual. Neither of these approaches can adequately describe the multi-dimensional matrix of informal interactions among scientists that shapes the distinctive work of individual scientists, and results in the kind of synergy found in the work of the Mayers. The principal investigator requests RUI support during her sabbatical year 2002-2003 to write a dual scientific biography of Joseph and Maria Goeppert Mayer. This biography will constitute a comprehensive examination and analysis of the lives, careers, and choices of two of the preeminent scientists of the twentieth century. It will also contribute significantly to current investigations into the ways in which individual scientists are influenced by informal interactions with their colleagues, will present an example of a successful woman in physical science and provide a rare example of cross-gender interdisciplinary collaboration in science, and will serve as a case study of the intersection of the public and private spheres in the lives and careers of a married couple. The RUI award will enable the PI to deepen her scholarly activity, while enriching and informing her teaching and curriculum development, and will serve as a model for undergraduate students in history of science.