Curie, Marie (1867-1934)
Polish-born French physicist
Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and one of very few scientists ever to win that award twice. In collaboration with her physicist-husband Pierre Curie, Marie Curie developed and introduced the concept of radioactivity to the world. Working in primitive laboratory conditions, Curie investigated the nature of high-energy rays spontaneously produced by certain elements, and isolated two new radioactive elements, polonium and radium. Her scientific efforts also included the application of x rays and radioactivity to medical treatments.
Curie was born to her two-schoolteacher parents in Warsaw, Poland. Christened Maria Sklodowska, she was the fourth daughter and fifth child in the family. By the age of five, she had already begun to suffer deprivation. Her mother Bronislawa had contracted tuberculosis and assiduously avoided kissing or even touching her children. By the time Curie was 11, both her mother and her eldest sister Zosia died, leaving Marie an avowed atheist. Curie was also an avowed nationalist (like the other members in her family), and when she completed her elementary schooling, she entered Warsaw's "Floating University," an underground, revolutionary Polish school that prepared young Polish students to become teachers.
Curie left Warsaw at the age of 17, not for her own sake but for that of her older sister Bronya.
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