Maria Goeppert-Mayer
Maria Goeppert-Mayer studied at Georg-August University where she eventually majored in physics (1). Later, achieved her doctorate based on research on the double-proton process, where her findings are now used in nonlinear optics and lasers. Her education allowed her to become a chemical physicist with a specialization in quantum mechanics. Maria received a position at Sarah Lawrence College at the start of WWII, and during this time she housed and supported many scholars that became exiled from Germany during the war. She later began working on the Manhattan project (nuclear weapon development) in secret. Maria’s work with optical opacity was incorporated in the creation of the hydrogen bomb. Maria obtained a professor position at the University of Chicago where she indicated that there were strong nucleon-nucleon interactions, and that there is a spin coupling aspect to the interaction. Through these advancements Maria made in the structure of the nuclear shell, she was the second woman awarded the nobel prize in physics.
References:
Grzybowski A, Pietrzak K. 2013. Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1906–1972): Two-photon effect on dermatology. Clin Dermatol. 31(2):221–225. doi:10.1016/j.clindermatol.2012.06.002. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clindermatol.2012.06.002.