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Marie Curie

✨ 1867–1934, Physics and chemistry

Marie Curie (1867–1934) was a Polish-born physicist and chemist who became a pioneer in the study of radioactivity. Born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw, she moved to Paris in 1891 to continue her studies at the Sorbonne. There she studied physics and mathematics and later began scientific research with Pierre Curie, whom she married in 1895. While investigating the unusual radiation emitted by uranium, Marie Curie proposed that this phenomenon came from the atoms themselves.

She introduced the term radioactivity and discovered that the mineral pitchblende was more radioactive than could be explained by its uranium content alone. Working with Pierre Curie, she identified two previously unknown elements: polonium, named after her native Poland, and radium. Their research required the processing of large quantities of mineral material and helped establish radioactivity as an important field of scientific study.

Marie Curie's achievements continued after Pierre Curie's accidental death in 1906. She became the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne and continued her research into radioactive substances and their medical applications. During the First World War, she helped develop mobile X-ray units that could be used near the front to assist doctors in examining wounded soldiers.

Curie received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 for her discoveries of polonium and radium and her work on radium. She remains the only person to have received Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields. Long-term exposure to ionizing radiation affected her health, and she died in 1934. Her work helped shape modern nuclear physics, chemistry and medical applications of radiation.

💡 Did you know?

The Flying University. In old Poland, girls were not allowed to pursue higher studies. Marie had to study in secret in a 'Flying University': classes changed locations every day to avoid being discovered by the police. It is thanks to her courage that she was able to become one of the greatest scientists in the world!

A magic and dangerous glow. Marie and her husband Pierre worked in a very simple old shed. There they discovered radium, an element so powerful that it glows by itself with a blue light in the dark. At the time, they did not know it was dangerous and Marie even kept some in her pockets for its light!

The Little Curies. During the First World War, Marie wanted to help the wounded. She invented ambulances equipped with X-ray machines to be able to locate bullets and treat soldiers directly on the front. The soldiers called these miracle trucks the 'Little Curies'.