Which physicist shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics for proposing the nuclear shell model?

Maria Goeppert Mayer shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics for proposing the nuclear shell model.

The nuclear shell model describes atomic nuclei as having energy levels, or shells, occupied by protons and neutrons. Goeppert Mayer developed a successful version independently of J. Hans D. Jensen. Their model explained why nuclei with certain “magic numbers” of protons or neutrons are unusually stable.

The key advance was recognizing that nuclear particles experience spin-orbit coupling, which splits energy levels in the way needed to match observed nuclear stability. Goeppert Mayer and Jensen shared half of the 1963 physics Nobel Prize, while Eugene Wigner received the other half for work on the theory of the atomic nucleus and elementary particles.

Goeppert Mayer spent much of her career working in positions connected to her husband’s university appointments, a reflection of the barriers facing women scientists at the time. She became the second woman to win the physics Nobel Prize.