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

诺贝尔物理学奖赢家玛丽亚·戈佩特·迈耶和她的丈夫、化学家约瑟夫·迈耶从事不同的学科，从事不同的研究领域，很少发表合作成果。然而，仔细研究他们的科学生涯发现，随着时间的推移，约瑟夫·迈耶开始从物理学家的角度研究化学，试图将统计力学纳入物理化学，玛丽亚·戈佩特·迈耶开始从化学家的角度研究物理，发展核壳模型。这种智力上的相互作用说明了一种在历史文献中尚未充分探讨的科学合作形式。科学史学家倾向于以两种不同的方式关注科学理论的演变：要么作为思想史，强调个体科学家所遵循的思想道路，要么作为超越任何个体思想生活的社会现象。这两种方法都不能充分描述科学家之间非正式互动的多维矩阵，这种矩阵塑造了个别科学家的独特工作，并导致了迈耶工作中的协同作用。主要研究者在2002-2003年休假期间请求RUI支持撰写Joseph和Maria Goeppert Mayer的双重科学传记。这本传记将构成对二十世纪两位杰出科学家的生活、职业和选择的全面考察和分析。它还将大大有助于目前对科学家个人如何受到与同事的非正式互动影响的调查，将展示物理科学领域成功女性的例子，并提供科学领域跨性别跨学科合作的罕见例子，并将作为已婚夫妇生活和职业中公共和私人领域交叉的案例研究。RUI奖将使PI能够深化她的学术活动，同时丰富和告知她的教学和课程开发，并将作为科学史本科生的典范。

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.