Marie Sklodowska Curie
1867-1934
Polish-born French Chemist
One of the pioneering figures in early nuclear physics and radiochemistry, Marie Curiewas the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win two Nobel Prizes (in 1903 and 1911), and remains the only person to win both prizes in the same field, and to be the mother of another Nobel Prize winner—Irène Joilot-Curie (1897-1956). Her extraordinary accomplishments served to break down many social and cultural barriers that had previously prevented women from pursuing careers as research scientists.
Maria Sklodowska was the daughter of Polish intellectuals suffering repression under the Russian occupation of their homeland. Despite such circumstances, her parents provided her with a thorough education. As a young woman, she worked as a governess before leaving for Paris in 1891 to live with relatives and pursue further studies, changing her first name to its French form, Marie. In 1893 she received her diploma in physics with high honors—an extraordinary distinction for a woman at that time—and in 1894 a second diploma in mathematics with honors. In April 1894 she met the promising young physicist Pierre Curie (1859-1906); they married in July 1895 and their daughter Irène was born in 1897.
The course of the Curies's scientific researches was set by the 1895 discovery of "xrays" from uranium by Wilhelm Roentgen (1845-1923). Pierre and Marie undertook the laborious task of purifying several tons of pitchblende (impure uranium ore) to obtain only a few pounds of concentrated radioactive material. Early in 1898 Marie noted that the samples thereby obtained appeared to contain other substances besides uranium. In July this suspicion was confirmed when measurements of rates of radioactive emissions revealed the presence of another element, named "polonium" in honor of Marie's homeland. In November, spectroscopic analysis performed for them by Eugène Demarcay (1852-1903) disclosed the existence of a second element, named "radium," though it was not successfully isolated until 1902.
Meanwhile, in 1900 Marie assumed a position as the first female faculty member at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, an all-women's school in Sèvres. In 1903 she defended her research thesis on analysis of radiation from uranium at the Sorbonne. That same year, Marie and Pierre shared the prestigious Humphrey Davy Medal from England, and then the Nobel Prize with Henri Becquerel (1852-1908) for research on radioactivity. In 1904 a second daughter, Eve, was born, and Marie was finally allowed to join her husband, who was a member of the Faculty of Sciences at the Sorbonne, as his research assistant. This seemingly idyllic picture was shattered when Pierre was struck and killed by a horse-drawn carriage in April 1906.
The faculty of the Sorbonne thereupon offered Marie the professorship held by her late husband. This appointment was officially confirmed in 1909, making her the first female faculty member of one of the world's most prestigious universities. However, Madame Curie's life was not free from controversy; in 1910 she declined the award of the Legion of Honor, as Pierre had done in 1903, and in 1911 she was rejected for membership in the Académie des Sciences after public controversy surrounding her involvement in an extramarital affair. The award of a second Nobel Prize later that year for her discoveries of polonium and radium, along with her belated election to the Académie in 1914 and role as a founding member of the Conseil de l'Institut du Radium, represented, however, a vindication of her scientific work and reputation.
Marie continued her researches into radioactivity together with her daughter and sonin-law, Irène and Frederic Joilot-Curie, up until her death from leukemia, due to many years of unprotected exposure to radiation at a time when its hazards were not yet known.
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