Marie Curie (1867-1934: Poland/France)
Marie Curie, born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland, was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, once in Physics (1903) with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for the discovery of radioactivity, and again in her own right for Chemistry (1911) for the isolation of pure radium. Her pioneering work with her husband led to the discovery of both polonium and radium in 1898.
After her husband’s death in 1906 she was appointed to his professorship at the Sorbonne and was the first woman to teach there. She subsequently was appointed director of the Curie Laboratory in the Radium Institute of the University of Paris.
She was instrumental in ensuring the stockpiling of radium, providing a source crucial to the success of further experimentation until artificial radioactivity was discovered in 1934 by Curie’s daughter and her husband. Curie’s later research dealt with the uses of radiography, particularly their medical applications.
As a young woman, Curie had received a limited education in Poland and left for Paris in 1891, after supporting her sister Bronia’s medical studies there. Curie earned a first place in the licence of physical sciences from the Sorbonne in 1893 and a second in the licence of physical science in 1894. She earned a doctor of science degree in 1903.
Later in her life she became a member of the Academy of Medicine and was appointed to the International Commission on Intellectual Co-operation by the Council of the League of Nations. She lived to see in her sister Bronia appointed director on the new Radium Institute in Warsaw in 1932.
“Radium and Radioactivity,” Mme. Marie Curie
Century Magazine, January 1904
“Marie Curie: In the Laboratory and on the Battlefield,” Lawrence Badash
Reprinted with permission from Physics Today, July 2003. Copyright 2003, American Institute of Physics.
The First World Physics Conference in 1911
Photo: © Copyright 1996 - 2006 American Institute of Physics
The International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry, located in Brussels, were founded by the Belgian industrialist Ernest Solvay in 1912. As a woman, Curie (second from right, seated) stands out in this photo of male participants, including Einstein (second from right, standing).
Fifth Solvay Conference, 1927
Photo: © Copyright 1996 - 2006 American Institute of Physics
Perhaps the most famous conference was the October 1927 Fifth Solvay International Conference on Electrons and Photons, where the world's most notable physicists met to discuss the newly formulated quantum theory. Seventeen of the twenty-nine attendees were or became Nobel Prize winners. Curie remains the solitary woman (front row, third from left).
Marie Curie
Photo: IRC. (2005). Retrieved May 18, 2006, from unitedstreaming.
Marie Curie with husband, Pierre Curie
Photo: IRC. (2005). Retrieved May 18, 2006, from unitedstreaming.
Marie Curie (1867-1934) with her husband Pierre (1859-1906) at the Radium Institute in Paris.
Marie Curie: Radioactivity and the Discovery of Radium
Video: 8.5 minutes
Discovery Channel School (2000) Retrieved May 18, 2006, from unitedstreaming
Introduction to Nuclear Energy
Video: 3 minutes
Discovery Channel School (2000) Retrieved May 18, 2006, from unitedstreaming
The Curies and Nuclear Medicine
Video: 3 minutes
Discovery Channel School (2002). Retrieved May 18, 2006, from unitedstreaming.
Although nuclear science can be used for good purposes, such as energy and medicine, it carries great risks. Scientist Marie Curie helped pioneer the study of radiation, but she died of leukemia caused by its toxic properties.
