Gertrude Scharff Goldhaber

Gertrude Scharff Goldhaber (July 14, 1911 – February 2, 1998) was a German-born Jewish-American nuclear physicist. She earned her PhD from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and though her family suffered during The Holocaust, Gertrude was able to escape to London and later to the United States. She showed that uranium undergoing spontaneous fission emits neutrons. Her research during World War II was classified, and not published until 1946. She and her husband, Maurice Goldhaber, spent most of their post-war careers at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Early life Gertrude Scharff was born in Mannheim, Germany on July 14, 1911. Only Maurice Goldhaber wrote back offering any hope, stating that he thought she might be able to find work in Cambridge. At the laboratory she founded a series of monthly lectures known as the Brookhaven Lecture Series which is still continuing .

Scharff-Goldhaber was an active member of the American Physical Society (APS). She participated in committees devoted to the status of women in physics and pre-college physics education. She reached early career scientists, both men and women. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, who was awarded the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine thanked Scharff-Goldhaber "for support and encouragement."

Due to retirement laws of the time, she officially ended her employment in 1977, but continued to work unpaid until 1988.