Born Maria Salomea Skłodowska in Warsaw, Poland on November 7, 1867, Marie Curie grew up to become one of the most remarkable physicists and chemists of all time. Curie was born to two Polish educators who highly valued learning and ensured that all their children receive a quality education. After graduating high school, Curie had hoped to study at the University of Warsaw with her sister Bronia, but the school did not accept women. So they enrolled at the Flying University, a Polish college. Though the institution welcomed female students, it was illegal for women to receive higher education at the time, so the school frequently changed locations in an effort to avoid detection from authorities. Curie continued her education at the Sorbonne upon moving to Paris in 1891.
In 1894, Curie began to work in Gabriel Lippmann’s research laboratory. She met Pierre Curie—who would later become both her husband and colleague in the field of radioactivity—in the spring of that year. The discovery of natural radioactivity by physicist Henri Becquerel inspired Marie and Pierre Curie to investigate the phenomenon closer. They examined various substances and minerals for signs of radioactivity and found that the mineral pitchblende was more radioactive than uranium, concluding that it must contain other radioactive substances as well. From their research, they were able to extract two previously unknown elements, polonium and radium, both more radioactive than uranium.
Despite the setbacks in educational opportunities that Curie faced in her early life, she made history in 1903 as the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize when she won the Nobel Prize in physics with her husband and with Becquerel for their work on radioactivity. Even more noteworthy was the second Nobel Prize she received in 1911 in chemistry, making her the first person to receive the honor twice and the only person, to this day, to receive the honor for two different sciences. Continuing to innovate, Curie worked to improve x-radiography and created portable x-ray machines during World War I while teaching radiologist nurses how to operate them on the battlefield.
Following the war, Curie centered her focus on supporting her own research centers in Paris and Warsaw. Her radium institutes were the site of remarkable work, including the discovery of the element francium by Marguerite Perey, and the development of artificial radioactivity by Curie’s own daughter, Irène, and Frederic Joliot-Curie. Now known as Institut Curie, the centers are still used for vital cancer treatment research today. At the age of 66, Curie tragically passed away from aplastic pernicious anaemia, a condition she developed after years of exposure to radiation through her work. Through her outstanding breakthroughs in scientific research, Curie not only advanced science, but also women’s status in the scientific community. As a woman who led revolutionary research at a time when women were not even remotely considered to be useful in the field of science, Marie Curie stands as an icon in the world of modern STEM.
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