1906-1972. German-born US physicist who
worked mainly on the structure of the atomic
nucleus. She shared the 1963 Nobel Prize for
Physics with Eugene Wigner and Hans Jensen
(1907-1973). Her explanation of the stability
of particular atoms 1948 envisaged atomic
nuclei as shell-like layers of protons and
neutrons, with the most stable atoms having
completely filled outermost shells.