Marie Curie - November 1867 to July 1934

Marie Curie is the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize and the only woman to be awarded it twice. The first was in physics in 1903 for research into radioactivity and the second in chemistry in 1911, when she discovered and named two completely new radioactive elements, radium and polonium.

Maria Goeppert Mayer - June 1906 to February 1972

The second woman to win the Nobel Prize is Maria Mayer for her discovery of the shell structure of atomic nuclei. She is also remembered for two-photon absorption of atoms - a theory that was difficult to prove at the time of publication, but with the advent of lasers was easily substantiated. The unit of two-photon absorption cross sections called Goeppert-Mayer units (GM units) after Maria.

Lise Meitner - November 1878 to October 1968

She is as famous for helping to discover nuclear fission as for being deprived of the Nobel Prize by the Nobel Committee. Lise Meitner has gone down in physics history by launching the revolutionary hypothesis that nuclear fission occurs when uranium is exposed to neutron radiation in December 1938, interpreting an experiment conducted by Otto Hahn. The hypothesis was confirmed in January 1939 by an experiment conducted by the Swedish physicist's nephew Otto Robert Frisch.

Today's women in physics

Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Astrophysicist; The first person to observe pulsars

Sandra Faber; Astrophysicist; Pioneering studies in galaxy evolution

Joan Feynman; Astrophysicist; The study of solar wind particles and fields; also discovers the origin of auroras

Fabiola Gianotti; Particle physicist; Director General of CERN

Lene Hau; Quantum physicist; Slowing down and finally stopping a beam of light

Female professors at Fysikum

Katherine Freese, Professor of Astroparticle Physics, Division of Cosmology, Astroparticle Physics and String Theory.

Kerstin Jon-And, Professor Emerita in Physics, Division of Astroparticle Physics and Elementary Particle Physics.

Åsa Larson, Professor of Theoretical Molecular Physics, Division of Atomic Physics

Eva Lindroth, Professor of Theoretical Atomic Physics, Division of Atomic Physics

Hiranya Peiris, Professor of Astrophysics, Division of Cosmology, Astroparticle Physics and String Theory.

Sara Strandberg, Professor of Particle Physics, Division of Astroparticle Physics and Elementary Particle Physics

This is a selection of those who are with us and we also have a number of other female physicists at Fysikum.

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Apply for our physics courses and programmes! Application period 15/3 - 15/4