Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie, better known as Marie Curie, was born on November 7th 1867
in Warsaw, Poland.
Maria was the youngest of 5 children from a humble family of teachers.
Bronislawa and Wladyslaw taught them since they were little the value of learning.
When she was 11 years old, one of her sisters died of typhus and, soon after, her mom died
of tuberculosis.
Despite these sad events, Maria’s father tried to keep his kids focused on their studies.
Maria graduated with excellent grades, and when the moment came for her to continue with
her Higher Education, she found that she couldnt register because she was a woman.
Decided to continue studying, she enrolled, along with her sister Bronislawa, in a clandestine
(clandéstin) university that admited female students.
As soon as she could, she left to Paris to continue her education.
In 1981, she arrived to the french capital, where she changed her name to Marie.
She joined the Sorbonne University, where she studied physics and maths during two years
of intense work, becoming number one in her year.
Marie needed a laboratory to continue researching, and this was how she met Pierre Curie in 1984,
while they were working on the magnetic field.
35 years old, Pierre was a brilliant figure in french physics.
Their love for science made them connect immediately, and it didnt take them long to get married.
They had 2 daughters, Irène, who got the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1935 with her husband,
and Ève Curie, a writer.
When Marie found out about the recent discoveries about the new types of radiation, she decided
to investigate them.
She started studying the radiation of uranium, and using the piezoelectric techniques invented
by Pierre, she measured, carefully, the radiations in pitchblende, a mineral that contained it.
When she saw the radiations of the mineral were more intense than those of uranium itself,
she realized there must be unknown elements, more radioactive.
Marie Curie was the first person to ever use the term “radioactive” to describe elements
that emit radiation when their nucleus decompose.
Pierre renounced his job to join his wife’s research.
In 1898, the Curies announced the discovery of two new elements: polonium and radium.
During the following 4 years, the couple, working under very precarious conditions,
treated a tonne of pitchblende, of which they isolated a 1-gram fraction of radium.
In 1903, they were awarded the Physics Nobel Prize, thanks to their discovery of radioactive
elements, shared with Becquerel.
The Curies, very reserved, suffered when they were put under so much media pressure.
Marie Curie was the first woman to ever get this award.
In 1904, Pierre was named a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1905, member of
the French Academy.
These positions werent really for women, so Marie didnt get as much recognition.
Sadly, Pierre died run over by a horse cart on April 19th 1906.
From that moment on, Marie decided to take on his clases and continue with the research.
In 1911, she got her second Nobel Prize, Chemistry this time, thanks to her research on radium
and its compounds.
She was the first person to be awarded two Nobel Prizes.
She was named director of the Radium Institute in Paris in 1914, and the Curei Institute
was founded.
When WWI broke out, she used her scientific knowledge to help the troops.
She collected money to create a fleet of x-ray mobile units, driven from field hospital to
field hospital.
Marie left to the US in 1921, to collect a gram of radium.
This acquisition was possible thanks to popular contribution, promoted by a journalist.
Eventually, Marie Curie suffered an aplastic anemia, caused by large exposure to radiation.
After losing her eyesight, she died on July 4th 1934 at a sanatorium in Passy, in the
french Alps.
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Marie Curie’s life was a continuous fight.
She had to go over a thousand obstacles to be able to work on her dream.
Madame Curie is such an icon of women in science, and in society
in general.