Marie Sklodowska Curie:Marie Sklodowska Curie:The Woman Who OpenedThe Woman Who Opened

The Nuclear AgeThe Nuclear Age

1867-1934

Marie Curie (1867-1934), is famous for her work on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences. She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris.

• She was born in 1867 as Maria Salomea Skłodowska in Warsaw, Poland.

• She had her early education and began her practical scientific training in Warsaw.

• In 1891, she moved to Paris, and earned her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work in Paris.

• In 1895, she married Pierre Curie, a fellow scientist.

• She and Pierre did extensive research on the recently discovered phenomenon of radioactivity.

The discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in 1896 inspired the Curies in their brilliant researches and analyses which led to the isolation of Polonium, named after the country of Marie's birth Poland, and Radium

For the work they did on radioactivity that led to the discovery of Polonium and Radium, Marie and Pierre Curie shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics, jointly with Henri Becquerel. She was the first woman ever to win a Nobel.

• On 19 April 1906, Pierre Curie was killed in a road accident when he was run over by a horse carriage. • After Pierre died, Marie Curie was

appointed to take over the professorship at Sorbonne and to lecture in Pierre’s place, the first woman to become a Professor at the Sorbonne.• Marie Curie had been devastated by her

husband's death, but she accepted it hoping to create a world-class laboratory as a tribute to Pierre.

She was inspired by a statement Pierre had once made to her when he was ill: “Whatever happens, even if you feel like a body that is deprived of its soul, it is our duty to continue the work, despite everything!”

Professor at Sorbonne

• Taking courage from her husband’s brave words, Marie put her grief behind her and continued her work on radioactivity.

• In 1910 Curie succeeded in gaining insights into the nature of the atom and finally, isolating Radium physically.

• She also defined an international standard for radioactive emissions that was eventually named after her and Pierre: the Curie.

• She won an unprecedented second Nobel Prize in 1911, in Chemistry, for her work on Radium.

• She was the first person to win or share two Nobel Prizes.

• Till today, she remains, alone with Linus Pauling, the American Scientist, as Nobel Laureates in two separate fields; and the only woman in the list of multiple Nobel winners.

• In 1914, she set up the Radium Institute (now known as the Curie Institute) in Paris, a radioactivity laboratory created for her by the Pasteur Institute and the University of Paris.

• During World War I, Curie realized the need for field radiological centres near the front lines to assist battlefield surgeons, and developed mobile radiography units.

• In 1915 Curie produced hollow needles containing 'radium emanation', to be used for sterilizing infected tissue.

• After the War, she continued with her scientific work, and also with setting up and establishing the Radium Institute.

• She was honoured by several countries and served on various International scientific committees.

• Due to her long-term exposure to radiation during her work, her health deteriorated, and she died in 1934, due to Aplastic Anaemia (Blood Cancer).

• Her first daughter Irene Joliot-Curie also won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1935)- the first mother & daughter Nobel Prize Laureates.

• She is regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time.