J. Hans Jensen
Jensen, J. Hans (1907-1973) was a German physicist. He won the 1963 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the shell structure of the nucleus of the atom. Jensen shared the prize with the American physicists Maria Goeppert Mayer and Eugene Paul Wigner. Mayer, working independently, did similar research, while Wigner, also working independently, did work on elementary particles and atomic nuclei.
Even though they worked independently, Jensen and Mayer in 1949 prepared nearly identical papers on the shell structure of atomic nuclei. Both the papers were published, and the two physicists then together wrote the book Elementary Theory of Nuclear Shell Structure, which was published in 1955. They showed that each atom's nucleus has a structure of concentric shells, or spherical layers, with each shell containing varying numbers of protons and neutrons spinning in their own orbits.
Johannes Hans Daniel Jensen was born on June 25, 1907, in Hamburg, Germany. He received a doctorate in physics in 1932 and a postgraduate degree in 1936, both from the University of Hamburg. He also was employed at the university, from 1932 to 1936 as an assistant in science and from 1937 to 1941 as a lecturer. He was professor of theoretical physics at the University of Hanover in Germany from 1941 to 1948.
Jensen spent the rest of his career at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, serving as professor of physics from 1949 to 1969 and dean of the faculty from 1955 to 1969. During the 1950's and early 1960's, he also was a visiting professor at universities throughout the United States. From 1955 until his death, Jensen was coeditor of the Zeitschrift für Physik (Journal of Physics) with Otto Haxel. Jensen never married. He died on Feb. 11, 1973, in Heidelberg.