Marie Skłodowska Curie—First scientist to pioneer research on radioactivity
Marie Skłodowska Curie (1867-1934) was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only woman to win the Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two separate sciences, physics and chemistry. She shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie and physicist Henri Becquerel. She won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Her achievements included a theory of radioactivity (a term that she coined), techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium (named for her native Poland) and radium. Marie was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris and she also developed truck-mounted X-ray units for French soldiers in World War I.
As women could not attend universities in Russian-ruled Warsaw, she and her sister Bronisława (nickname Bronia) studied at the clandestine Flying University, a secret institution of higher learning that admitted women students. Because Poland did not exist from 1795 to 1918 and was partitioned by Russia, Germany, and Austria, Polish nationalists established the underground institution so Polish youth could obtain an education within the framework of traditional Polish scholarship.
Both Marie and Bronia dreamed of going abroad to earn an official degree but they lacked the financial resources to pay for more schooling. Undeterred, Marie worked out a deal with her sister. She would work to support Bronia’s schooling in Paris and Bronia would return the favor after she completed her studies. Marie worked as a tutor and governess in Poland and used her spare time to study, reading about physics, chemistry, and math.
She then followed her sister Bronia and studied at the University of Paris, earned higher degrees, and married French physicist Pierre Curie. She raised her two young daughters, Ève and Irène, alone after her husband died in an accident in 1906. One daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, went on to co-win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband for their own work with radioactivity. Marie Skłodowska Curie died in 1934, aged 66, of aplastic anemia from exposure to radiation in the course of her scientific research and radiological work at field hospitals during World War I. She was first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.
Initially, the Nobel prize Committee didn’t want the award to be given to Marie because she was a woman. However, her husband, Pierre, was informed of this by a committee member, who was also an advocate of women scientists. Upon a complaint by Pierre, his wife’s name was added to the nomination. The award money allowed the Curies to hire their first lab assistant.
