Science Seminar Series: Magic: Maria Mayer, Nuclear Shell Numbers, and Sarah Lawrence College with Dr. Scott Calvin, SLC Guest Faculty in Physics

Maria Mayer’s path to her 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics was very different than that taken by most of her fellow laureates. Blessed with a highly privileged education in Germany and supportive family and colleagues, her career was impacted when she faced misogynistic academic cultures after emigrating to the United States. For a time, she taught at Sarah Lawrence College, even as she was working on a “supersecret” project: the atomic bomb. Later, she developed a theory to explain the “magic numbers” that predict which atomic nuclei will be especially stable. In this seminar, Dr. Scott Calvin will examine Mayer’s unconventional path, her role at Sarah Lawrence, and the theory that earned her a Nobel Prize.

Scott Calvin is the Pre-Health Program Director at Lehman College of the City University of New York, where he also teaches physics. Prior to this, he taught physics at Sarah Lawrence College, developing courses including Crazy Ideas in Physics, Rocket Science, and Steampunk Physics. He has also taught at the Hayden Planetarium, Examkrackers, the University of San Francisco, and Southern Connecticut State University. He has authored XAFS for Everyone, a textbook on x-ray absorption spectroscopy; Beyond Curie: Four Women in Physics and Their Remarkable Discoveries, 1903 to 1963; and Cartoon Physics: A Graphic Novel Guide to Solving Physics Problems; co-authored Examkrackers 1001 Questions in MCAT Chemistry; and co-designed and produced an artisanal pop-up book promoting the National Synchrotron Light Source II facility.