Maria Goeppert Mayer

This is a brief biography of Maria Goeppert Mayer. We have tried to emphasise that even outstanding women like her had to suffer (and still suffer) great discrimination. In spite of the handicaps she achieved the highest scientific distinction. B Banerjee, after his retirement from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, has been teaching in the Physics Department, University of Mumbai. He is mainly interested in the application of nuclear physics to astrophysics and cosmology.