11 questions · Society & Everyday
When Maria Skłodowska was born in Russian-occupied Warsaw in 1867, a scientific career seemed almost unthinkable: women were barred from university. So she studied in secret, worked as a governess and saved every penny until she could follow her sister to Paris. At the Sorbonne she studied physics, often freezing and half-starved in a tiny attic room and graduated top of her class. In Paris she met the physicist Pierre Curie. Love and lab partnership grew into a legendary scientific couple. Together they chased a mysterious phenomenon that Marie named "radioactivity". Sifting through tonnes of pitchblende, they tracked down two new elements: polonium, named after her native Poland, and radium, which glowed eerily in the dark. In 1903 she received the Nobel Prize in Physics for this work (together with Pierre and Henri Becquerel) becoming the very first woman ever to win a Nobel Prize. After Pierre's early death in an accident, she carried on alone, took over his professorship and, in 1911, was honoured with a second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry. To this day she remains the only person with Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. During the First World War she had mobile X-ray units built (the "petites Curies") and drove to the front herself to help the wounded. Years of working with radiation took their toll: in 1934 Marie Curie died of a blood disorder brought on by her long exposure to radiation. But her legacy lives on to this day, including within her own family: her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie later won a Chemistry Nobel Prize of her own.
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Maria Skłodowska (Warsaw)
At the time Warsaw belonged to the Russian Empire, and women were barred from university.
💡 Did you know? As a woman Maria Skłodowska could not study in Poland: she went to the Sorbonne in Paris and graduated top of her year.
Physics 1903
Shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, for research into radioactivity.
💡 Did you know? She was the first woman ever to receive a Nobel Prize.
Chemistry 1911
For discovering the elements radium and polonium and isolating pure radium.
💡 Did you know? With the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Curie became the first person ever to win two Nobel Prizes.
Polonium and radium
Together with Pierre, Marie Curie discovered the new elements polonium and radium: from tonnes of processed ore.
💡 Did you know? Radium glows in the dark: an effect that fascinated the Curies.
Poland
A political statement: Poland did not exist as an independent state at the time.
💡 Did you know? Curie named polonium after her homeland Poland, to draw attention to its partition and oppression.
Radioactivity
Marie Curie coined the term „radioactivity“ for the radiation of certain elements that she studied.
💡 Did you know? Curie's research notebooks are still so radioactive that they are kept in lead-lined boxes.
Nobel Prizes in two sciences
Curie remains the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences: physics and chemistry.
💡 Did you know? Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911).
Irène Joliot-Curie
She received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935.
💡 Did you know? Her daughter Irène won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry herself in 1935: making mother and daughter the most successful Nobel duo.
effects of radiation exposure
Marie Curie died in 1934 of a blood disease caused by decades of exposure to radiation, whose danger was then unrecognised.
💡 Did you know? Her notebooks are still radioactive today and are kept in lead-lined boxes.
mobile X-ray units
She trained assistants and drove to the front herself.
💡 Did you know? In the First World War Curie set up mobile X-ray vans (called „little Curies“) and trained women as radiographers.
Foto: Generalstabens Litografiska Anstalt Stockholm · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Marie Curie
Marie Curie (1867 to 1934) was a Polish-French physicist and chemist and the first person to win two Nobel Prizes.
💡 Did you know? Curie was the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne and the first woman entombed in the Panthéon on her own merits.
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