WHO WAS MARIE CURIE?
Born Maria Sklodowska, Marie Curie (November 7, 1867 to July 4, 1934) became the
first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only woman to win the award in two
different fields (physics and chemistry). Curie's efforts, with her husband Pierre
Curie, led to the discovery of polonium and radium and, after Pierre's death, the
further development of X-rays.
WHAT DID MARIE CURIE DISCOVER?
Marie Curie discovered radioactivity, and, together with her husband Pierre, the
radioactive elements polonium and radium while working with the mineral
pitchblende.
Fascinated with the work of Henri Becquerel, a French physicist who discovered that
uranium casts off rays weaker than the X-rays found by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen,
Marie Curie took his work a few steps further. Curie conducted her own experiments
on uranium rays and discovered that they remained constant, no matter the
condition or form of the uranium. The rays, she theorized, came from the element's
atomic structure. This revolutionary idea created the field of atomic physics. Curie
herself coined the word radioactivity to describe the phenomena.
Following Marie’s discovery of radioactivity, she began researching together with her
husband Pierre. Working with the mineral pitchblende, the pair discovered a new
radioactive element in 1898. They named the element polonium, after Marie's native
country of Poland. They also detected the presence of another radioactive material
in the pitchblende, and called that radium. In 1902, the Curies announced that they
had produced a decigram of pure radium, demonstrating its existence as a unique
chemical element.
WHEN AND WHERE WAS MARIE CURIE BORN?
Marie Curie, was born in Warsaw in modern-day Poland on November 7, 1867.
Both of Marie Curie’s parents were teachers, and she was the youngest of five
children, following siblings Zosia, Józef, Bronya and Hela. As a child Curie took after
her father, Wladyslaw, a math and physics instructor. She had a bright and curious
mind and excelled at school. But tragedy struck early: When she was only 10, Curie
lost her mother, Bronislawa, to tuberculosis.
EDUCATION
A top student in her secondary school, Curie could not attend the men-only
University of Warsaw. She instead continued her education in Warsaw's "floating
university," a set of underground, informal classes held in secret. Both Curie and her
sister Bronya dreamed of going abroad to earn an official degree, but they lacked the
financial resources to pay for more schooling. Undeterred, Curie worked out a deal
with her sister. She would work to support Bronya while she was in school and
Bronya would return the favor after she completed her studies. For roughly five
years, Curie worked as a tutor and a governess. She used her spare time to study,
reading about physics, chemistry and math.
In 1891, Curie finally made her way to Paris where she enrolled at the Sorbonne in
Paris. She threw herself into her studies, but this dedication had a personal cost.
With little money, Curie survived on buttered bread and tea, and her health
sometimes suffered because of her poor diet. Curie completed her master's degree
in physics in 1893 and earned another degree in mathematics the following year
WAS MARIE CURIE MARRIED?
HOW AND WHEN DID MARIE CURIE DIE?
Marie Curie died on July 4, 1934, of aplastic anemia, which can be caused by
prolonged exposure to radiation. Earlier that year, she went to the Sancellemoz
Sanatorium in Passy, France, to try to rest and regain her strength. Curie was known
to carry test tubes of radium around in the pocket of her lab coat, and her many
years working with radioactive materials took a toll on her health.
In 1995, Marie and Pierre Curie’s remains were interred in the Panthéon in Paris, the
final resting place of France's greatest minds. Curie became the first and one of only
five women to be laid to rest there.
NOBEL PRIZES, X-RAYS AND LATER RESEARCH
In 1903 Marie Curie became the first woman scientist to win a Nobel Prize; in 1911,
she became the first scientist to win two Nobel Prizes. In 1903 Curie received the
Nobel Prize in physics along with her husband and Henri Becquerel for their work on
radioactivity. With their Nobel Prize win, the Curies developed an international
reputation for their scientific efforts, and they used their prize money to continue
their research.
In 1911, Curie won her second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry for her discovery of
radium and polonium. While she received the prize alone, she shared the honor
jointly with her late husband in her acceptance lecture. Around this time, Curie
joined with other famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Max Planck, to
attend the first Solvay Congress in Physics and discuss the many groundbreaking
discoveries in their field.
When World War I broke out in 1914, Curie devoted her time and resources to
helping the cause. She championed the use of portable X-ray machines in the field,
and these medical vehicles earned the nickname "Little Curies." After the war, Curie
used her celebrity to advance her research. She traveled to the United States twice—
in 1921 and in 1929— to raise funds to buy radium and to establish a radium
research institute in Warsaw.
