Photo credit - United Nations Office at Geneva Library @ Library of Congress

A pioneer physicist and chemist. Discovered the elements Radium and Polonium and pioneered the research on radioactivity. The first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only woman to win two Nobel Prizes, and the only woman and first person to win the Nobel Prize in two scientific fields.

Maria Salomea Skłodowska Curie was born in Warsaw, Russia (Nowadays, Poland). Curie has always been a top student, graduating at 16 with a gold medal, but could not enroll in formal higher education institutions because of her gender. Instead, she studied at a secret school called “Flying University,” which admitted female students. Her family did not have the means to finance school abroad, especially after her mother died a few years earlier, so she and her older sister had an agreement to take turns in work to support the other’s education in Paris. As the younger, Curie worked as a home tutor to finance her sister while educating herself independently.

In 1891, at the age of 24, she joined her sister in Paris, changing her name to Marie, and began to study physics, chemistry, and mathematics at the Sorbonne while continuing to tutor in the evenings. At 26, she earned her degree in physics, and in the following year, she received her second degree. She was commissioned to study different types of steel and their magnetic features but did not have a lab to do her work. While looking for a lab, she met the physicist Pierre Curie, who allowed her to use his lab for her research. Soon, they became involved romantically and got married within a year.

In 1896, 29 years old Curie became fascinated with Henri Becquerel’s discovery of radioactivity and began researching substances that emit radiation. Her husband was so intrigued by her work that he left his own research and joined hers. Their lab was not big enough for their experiments, so they worked in an old shed with broken windows and no heat. In the following year, Curie had given birth to her first daughter Irène. In addition to the challenges of being a new mom and working on her research, she began to teach at the École Normale Supérieure to support her growing family.

After two years of research, the Curies succeeded in isolating a new element, which they called Polonium, after Curie’s home country of Poland. Six months later, they announced the discovery of another element, Radium. Between 1898 to 1902, the couple published 32 papers on the new elements and their various properties, especially their therapeutic abilities.

In 1900, at the age of 33, Curie was appointed lecturer in physics at the École Normale Supérieure, the first female faculty member at the school. There, she introduced an innovative teaching method based on experimental demonstrations. In 1903, she received her doctorate of science from the Sorbonne. At that same time, Curie, her husband, and Henri Becquerel were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their researches on radiation, becoming the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize.

In 1906, after the sudden death of her husband, Curie was offered her husband’s vacant professorship position at the Sorbonne, once again making history as the first woman to teach at the prestigious university. She continued her research, and in 1910 she succeeded in isolating Radium while defining a new standard for radioactive emissions, which she named the Curie after her and her husband. In recognition of her revolutionary work, Curie won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, making her the first to win two Nobel Prizes and the first to be awarded the Nobel Prize in two scientific fields.
Only after winning her second Nobel Prize, Curie become a member of the Conseil du Physique Solvay and got the French government support to establish the Radium Institute of the University of Paris, where she served as the director of the Curie Laboratory.

In the first year of WW1, Curie developed mobile X-ray units, which were used for diagnosing injuries in field hospitals. Serving as Director of the Red Cross Radiological Service, Curie, and her 17 years old daughter, Irène, set up the first military radiology center in France and supplied 200 “Petits Curies” that helped locate fractures and bullets of the wounded men. In 1915, she provided the field hospitals with needles that contained Radium emanation from her supply, enabling sterilizing infected tissues. Later, she detailed her wartime experiences in the book Radiology in War.

After the war, Curie continued with her research and teaching positions and gave lectures around the world. She served on the International Atomic Weights Committee and established the Curie Foundation in Paris and the Radium Institute in Warsaw, where her older sister served as director.

Curie died at the age of 66 of aplastic anemia, which was caused by years of radiation exposure.

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“Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood.”

Fun Facts

She and her husband were the first married couple to win a Nobel Prize.
She had two daughters, Irène Joliot-Curie and Ève Curie. Both received accolades for their own merits. The oldest, Irène, was also a chemist and physicist that alongside her husband, discovered artificial radiation, for which she won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Ève's husband received Nobel Prize for Peace, making the Curies the most awarded family in history with a total of five Nobel Prizes.
She was not intended to receive her first Nobel Prize. But when her husband became aware of it, he complained to the committee that eventually added her name.
At her wedding, she wore a dark blue outfit that she later used as a laboratory outfit.
She and her husband coined the word "radioactivity."
The money she and her husband received with the prize allowed them to hire their first laboratory assistant.
She tried to donate her Nobel Prize medals for the war effort, but the French National Bank declined her offer.
At a reception for her at the White House, US President Warren G. Harding presented her 1 gram of radium collected in the US.
She wrote the biography of her husband, titled Pierre Curie.
In 1995, her and her husbands' remains were transferred to the Paris Panthéon, making her the second woman to be buried at the Panthéon and the first to receive the honor on her own merits.
Her papers are considered dangerous because of their levels of radioactive contamination.
Her book Radioactivity was published a year after she died.
She was the first woman to become a member of The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in 1920.
She was an honorary member of the Polish Chemical Society and the Iota Sigma Pi women scientists' society.
The element Curium was named in her honor.
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fellowship program of the European Union is given in her honor.
The Pierre et Marie Curie metro station in Paris is named in their honor.
An asteroid, schools, streets, and institutions are named in her honor.
She was the subject of numerous films, including Madame Curie (1943), Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge (1916), and Radioactive (1919).