Marguerite Perey is best known for her discovery of francium, the 87th element in the Periodic Table. Francium, a rare, highly unstable, radioactive element, is the heaviest chemical of the alkali metal group. Perey's work on francium and on such scientific occurrences as the actinium radioactive decay series led to her admission to the French Academy of Sciences. Perey was the first woman to be admitted to the two-hundred-year-old Academy--even Marie Curie had been unable to break the sex barrier.
Marguerite Catherine Perey was born in Villemomble, France, in 1909. As a child, she showed an interest in science and wanted to become a doctor. Her father's early death, however, left her family without the resources for such an education. Nonetheless, Perey was able to study physics and showed a talent for scientific endeavors. Because of her technical prowess, she was able to secure a position as a lab assistant (initially for a three-month stint) in Marie Curie's laboratory at the Radium Institute in Paris. Curie, for all her influence, made an unpretentious first impression, so much so that Perey, upon first meeting her at the Institute, thought she was the lab's secretary. This incident, combined with Curie's tendency to be aloof with strangers, might have portended a short career at the Curie lab for Perey. In fact, after the initial meeting, Perey thought she would only stay at the Radium Institute for her three months and leave. But Curie saw that Perey was both talented and dedicated, and she encouraged the younger woman, thus building a working relationship that extended beyond Perey's initial intentions.
Perey worked with Curie until the latter's death in 1934; thereafter she continued her mentor's research. Perey discovered the sequence of events that lead to the process known as the actinium radioactive decay series . This research inadvertently led to her most important discovery. She was aware of the existence of actinouranium, actinium-B, actinium-C, and actinium-D as part of the decay series she was trying to interpret. During this time, scientists were still trying to discover what they then believed to be the only three elements missing in the Periodic Table (which at the time contained 92 elements). One of these was Element 87. As Perey attempted to confirm her results of actinium radioactive decay, she found that other elements kept cropping up, disrupting the procedure. One of the elements was Element 87, with an atomic weight of 223. The element was highly charged--in fact, the most electropositive of all the elements. Because of this property, she considered naming it catium (from cation, which is a term for positively charged ions). But the word sounded too much like "cat" to her colleagues. As a result, she decided on francium, in honor of her homeland (and the place where the element had been discovered).
The following year, Perey took a position at France's National Center for Scientific Research. She remained there until 1949, when she became a professor of nuclear physics at the University of Strassbourg. She later became director of Strassbourg's Nuclear Research Center, holding that post for the rest of her life. By the time of her admission into the French Academy, Perey had already been diagnosed with the cancer that would slowly kill her. (She was undergoing treatment at the time of her appointment and was unable to attend the ceremonies.) She remained at the Nuclear Research Center and continued to conduct research. Eventually, the battle against the cancer grew more fierce, and, after a fifteen-year struggle, she succumbed in Louveciennes, France, on May 14, 1975.
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