Marie Goeppert Mayer

8.1

A German-born United States physicist who won the Nobel Prize for her work on the structure of the atom

proper noun

: Marie Goeppert Mayer

The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Marie Goeppert Mayer in 1963 for her work on nuclear shell structure.

Examples

Marie Goeppert Mayer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963.
Many young women in science look up to Marie Goeppert Mayer as a pioneering role model.
Born in Germany, Marie Goeppert Mayer made significant contributions to theoretical physics in the United States.
The renowned physicist Marie Goeppert Mayer made significant contributions to atomic structure.
The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Marie Goeppert Mayer in 1963 for her work on nuclear shell structure.
Many young women in science look up to Marie Goeppert Mayer as a pioneering role model.
Born in Germany, Marie Goeppert Mayer made significant contributions to theoretical physics in the United States.

Surface Forms

Marie Goeppert Mayer main

Morphology

Marie + Goeppert + Mayer

This item is a personal name; knowing the constituent words 'Marie', 'Goeppert', and 'Mayer' does not allow a learner to infer the biographical meaning (a German-born U.S. physicist and Nobel laureate). Proper names are arbitrary labels that require world knowledge or explicit explanation rather than compositional semantic inference, so the expression is not derivable from its parts.

Etymology

Marie Goeppert Mayer was a physicist who pictured the heart of the atom as layers or 'shells' where protons and neutrons sit, like eggs in a carton. Her clear image helped scientists understand atomic structure and earned her the 'Nobel Prize', so she is remembered as a pioneer in physics.