COUNTRY OF BIRTH

Poland

INDUSTRY

Physics and Chemistry

TOP ACHIEVEMENTS

Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only woman to win it twice in two different fields. She also became the first female professor at the Sorbonne and she was the first woman to be entombed at the Paris Pantheon based on her own achievements.

EARLY LIFE

Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1867. Though she was interested in science from an early age, she was unable to attend the University of Warsaw, which was only for men. So she began her training underground in secret science classes until she moved to Paris when she was 24. There, she completed a master's degree in physics in 1893 and a degree in mathematics in 1894. She married fellow scientist Pierre Curie in 1895. At first, they worked on different projects, but after Marie discovered radioactivity, Pierre joined her. In 1903, she won the Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre and physicist Henri Becquerel for their work on radioactivity. In 1906, Pierre was killed in a devastating accident, and Marie took up his teaching post, becoming the Sorbonne’s first female professor.

RISE TO SUCCESSES

In 1903 Curie and her husband and Henri Becquerel won the Nobel Prize in Physics. This Nobel Prize was the first one to be given to a woman. In 1911, she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering the elements polonium and radium, an honor that she shared with her late husband in her acceptance speech. She became a champion of x-rays and promoted using portable x-ray machines on the field in WWI.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

• Marie coined the term “radioactivity”
• She and her husband didn't go to collect their Nobel Prize, because they were too busy with their work
• She named polonium after her home country of Poland
• During WWI, portable x-ray machines were called “Little Curies”
• Marie and Pierre had two daughters, Irene and Eve. Irene won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 and Eve wrote the first biography of her mother, Madame Curie, in 1937.