Marie Curie
Barrett Smith
Marie Curie is one of the most renowned and groundbreaking scientists in history. Curie was a chemist who theorized about radiation, and discovered and isolated the element radium, used in cancer treatments and other medicine. Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the only person ever to win a Nobel in two different fields.
Marie Curie was born as Marie Skłodowska in Warsaw, Poland, in 1867, as the youngest of five siblings. Her parents were teachers, and she followed the example of her father who was a math and physics instructor. Curie excelled in school, was bright and inquisitive, and loved learning. But the Curie family soon experienced a period of hardship. When Russia invaded Poland, Curie's father lost his job because he supported Polish nationalism. Soon after, her mother died of tuberculosis. After her mother's death, Curie started attending an elite boarding school for academically gifted students.
Curie was a top student in her secondary school, but when she graduated she faced a difficult challenge - how was she going to continue her education? Under Russian rule, women were not permitted to attend university. Curie and her sister, Bronya, longed to pursue their studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, one of the most prestigious universities the world and one of the few that allowed women to attend. However, between school tuition, traveling, and living in Paris, the cost of attending the Sorbonne was prohibitive for the Curies. The sisters came to an agreement - Curie would work to support Bronya while she studied medicine, and then when Bronya graduated, she would do the same for Curie. It took six years for Bronya to complete her studies and become a doctor. During this time, Curie worked as a tutor to financially support her sister. In the evenings, she read physics and math textbooks and took courses at a free underground university.
In 1891, Curie finally moved to Paris and began studying at the Sorbonne. Living in Paris was expensive and she struggled financially. She survived off of bread and butter in an unheated apartment. Curie was one of the top students in her class, but her health suffered as a result of her destitute lifestyle. She graduated after two years with a master's degree in Physics, and after a third year she earned a second master's degree in Chemistry.
Curie missed her home and yearned to return. She decided to look for a job in Poland but realized that women were still unwelcome at the university, even as researchers. She returned to Paris, where her fiancé and fellow physicist Pierre Curie was waiting for her.
Curie was fascinated by the rays discovered by Henri Becquerel and Wilhelm Roentgen. Roentgen discovered Xrays and Becquerel discovered weaker rays that the element uranium emitted. Curie did her own experiments on uranium. She discovered that the rays remained constant no matter what. Curie theorized that the rays came from the atomic structure of uranium. Based off of these experiments, Curie came up with the theory of radioactivity and created a new field of physics called atomic physics.
After the birth of their first daughter, Pierre asked to join Curie in her lab because her work was so impressive and exciting. They looked for uranium rays in a mineral called pitchblende. But there were more rays than they expected and they realized there must be other elements emitting rays as well as uranium. After continuing to experiment with pitchblende they discovered two new elements that they named radium and polonium - named after Curie's native country of Poland.
In 1903, when Curie finished her PhD at the Sorbonne, her examiners thought that her work was the greatest contribution to science ever made in a PhD thesis. That year, she also won the Nobel Prize with her husband and Henri Becquerel for their work on radiation. She was the first woman to earn a Nobel Prize in physics. A few years later, Pierre was struck by a horse carriage and died. the Sorbonne offered Curie his position as professor of physics at the Sorbonne, making her their first female professor.
In 1911, Marie Curie won her second Nobel Prize, this time in the field of Chemistry for discovering polonium and radium. This would make her the first and only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different fields. Curie became famous for her scientific discoveries and was invited to attend the Solvay Congress in physics with Albert Einstein and other famous scientists.
When World War One broke out, Curie devoted herself to helping soldiers. She realized there was a shortage of X-ray machines, which meant they couldn't help all of the wounded soldiers. With her daughter's help, she made portable x-ray machines to be taken near battle lines and immediately provide medical attention to the wounded. She was so famous for promoting these portable X-rays that people started to call the trucks "Petite Curies" meaning "little Curies."
After the war, Curie continued her research, now focusing on how radium could be used medically. She had always been interested in the medical use of radium and had learned that it could be used to treat tumors. However, she did not have enough money to buy all of the radium she needed for her research. She could only afford one gram. Radium was really expensive because it had to go through a difficult process to be isolated. Curie traveled to the United States to fundraise for her research and for the creation of a research institute. When she raised enough money, she also created a radium research institute in her hometown of Warsaw. She created this institute to study how radium could be used medically, and to this day they continue to study groundbreaking cancer treatments.
Curie died in 1934 when she was 66 years old of aplastic anemia, a disease that is often caused by prolonged exposure to radiation. Curie did not know how dangerous radiation was back then, and she often carried around tubes of radium in her lab coat. Her notes and papers have been contaminated with so much radiation that they had to be kept in special lead boxes and could only be touched using protective gear. The Curies were buried in the Panthéon in Paris, a place where France's greatest minds are buried. Marie Curie is the first female to be recognized for her achievements by the Panthéon. To date, Marie Curie is the only female to win two Nobel Prizes and the only person - of any gender - to win two Nobel Prizes in science. Curie's achievements are held up today as an example to the world that women can make huge contributions in any field when they are allowed to pursue it through education and equal opportunities.
Marie Curie was born as Marie Skłodowska in Warsaw, Poland, in 1867, as the youngest of five siblings. Her parents were teachers, and she followed the example of her father who was a math and physics instructor. Curie excelled in school, was bright and inquisitive, and loved learning. But the Curie family soon experienced a period of hardship. When Russia invaded Poland, Curie's father lost his job because he supported Polish nationalism. Soon after, her mother died of tuberculosis. After her mother's death, Curie started attending an elite boarding school for academically gifted students.
Curie was a top student in her secondary school, but when she graduated she faced a difficult challenge - how was she going to continue her education? Under Russian rule, women were not permitted to attend university. Curie and her sister, Bronya, longed to pursue their studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, one of the most prestigious universities the world and one of the few that allowed women to attend. However, between school tuition, traveling, and living in Paris, the cost of attending the Sorbonne was prohibitive for the Curies. The sisters came to an agreement - Curie would work to support Bronya while she studied medicine, and then when Bronya graduated, she would do the same for Curie. It took six years for Bronya to complete her studies and become a doctor. During this time, Curie worked as a tutor to financially support her sister. In the evenings, she read physics and math textbooks and took courses at a free underground university.
In 1891, Curie finally moved to Paris and began studying at the Sorbonne. Living in Paris was expensive and she struggled financially. She survived off of bread and butter in an unheated apartment. Curie was one of the top students in her class, but her health suffered as a result of her destitute lifestyle. She graduated after two years with a master's degree in Physics, and after a third year she earned a second master's degree in Chemistry.
Curie missed her home and yearned to return. She decided to look for a job in Poland but realized that women were still unwelcome at the university, even as researchers. She returned to Paris, where her fiancé and fellow physicist Pierre Curie was waiting for her.
Curie was fascinated by the rays discovered by Henri Becquerel and Wilhelm Roentgen. Roentgen discovered Xrays and Becquerel discovered weaker rays that the element uranium emitted. Curie did her own experiments on uranium. She discovered that the rays remained constant no matter what. Curie theorized that the rays came from the atomic structure of uranium. Based off of these experiments, Curie came up with the theory of radioactivity and created a new field of physics called atomic physics.
After the birth of their first daughter, Pierre asked to join Curie in her lab because her work was so impressive and exciting. They looked for uranium rays in a mineral called pitchblende. But there were more rays than they expected and they realized there must be other elements emitting rays as well as uranium. After continuing to experiment with pitchblende they discovered two new elements that they named radium and polonium - named after Curie's native country of Poland.
In 1903, when Curie finished her PhD at the Sorbonne, her examiners thought that her work was the greatest contribution to science ever made in a PhD thesis. That year, she also won the Nobel Prize with her husband and Henri Becquerel for their work on radiation. She was the first woman to earn a Nobel Prize in physics. A few years later, Pierre was struck by a horse carriage and died. the Sorbonne offered Curie his position as professor of physics at the Sorbonne, making her their first female professor.
In 1911, Marie Curie won her second Nobel Prize, this time in the field of Chemistry for discovering polonium and radium. This would make her the first and only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different fields. Curie became famous for her scientific discoveries and was invited to attend the Solvay Congress in physics with Albert Einstein and other famous scientists.
When World War One broke out, Curie devoted herself to helping soldiers. She realized there was a shortage of X-ray machines, which meant they couldn't help all of the wounded soldiers. With her daughter's help, she made portable x-ray machines to be taken near battle lines and immediately provide medical attention to the wounded. She was so famous for promoting these portable X-rays that people started to call the trucks "Petite Curies" meaning "little Curies."
After the war, Curie continued her research, now focusing on how radium could be used medically. She had always been interested in the medical use of radium and had learned that it could be used to treat tumors. However, she did not have enough money to buy all of the radium she needed for her research. She could only afford one gram. Radium was really expensive because it had to go through a difficult process to be isolated. Curie traveled to the United States to fundraise for her research and for the creation of a research institute. When she raised enough money, she also created a radium research institute in her hometown of Warsaw. She created this institute to study how radium could be used medically, and to this day they continue to study groundbreaking cancer treatments.
Curie died in 1934 when she was 66 years old of aplastic anemia, a disease that is often caused by prolonged exposure to radiation. Curie did not know how dangerous radiation was back then, and she often carried around tubes of radium in her lab coat. Her notes and papers have been contaminated with so much radiation that they had to be kept in special lead boxes and could only be touched using protective gear. The Curies were buried in the Panthéon in Paris, a place where France's greatest minds are buried. Marie Curie is the first female to be recognized for her achievements by the Panthéon. To date, Marie Curie is the only female to win two Nobel Prizes and the only person - of any gender - to win two Nobel Prizes in science. Curie's achievements are held up today as an example to the world that women can make huge contributions in any field when they are allowed to pursue it through education and equal opportunities.