Women Who Inspire Us: Marie Curie

Marie Curie was born Maria Salomea Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland in 1867. As a young woman, she wanted to study science, but Polish universities did not allow female students. She saved up money by tutoring and move to Paris. She enrolled in sciences classes at La Sorbonne.

There she met and married a French physicist named Pierre Curie. She later became a French citizen, which is how she became known as Marie Curie around the world.

Marie Curie breaks ground for women in science

Marie Curie stands in a long black dress in her laboratory, looking into glass test tubes.

Marie Curie had to overcome a lot of sexism in academia. The Curies published 32 scientific papers in 6 years. Sometimes, when they were invited to present on their work, Pierre had to give the talks because women were not allowed to gives speeches.

Marie Curie overcame these hurdles. Her scientific career was extraordinary:

  • She studied radioactivity and even coined the term.
  • She discovered the elements polonium (named after her home county, Poland) and radium.
  • She became the first women to become a faculty member at a prestigious French university. Later, she was named chair of the Physics department at the University of Paris. It was there that she created the Radium Institute. It was later renamed Curie Institute.
  • She developed mobile X-ray units for soldiers during World War I. She helped many injured soldiers and became director of the Red Cross Radiology Service.

Marie Curie and Nobel Prizes

Perhaps Marie Curie is best known for winning both the Nobel Prize in Physics (1903) and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911). With these awards, she became:

  • The first woman to win a Nobel Prize.
  • The first person to win two Nobel Prizes.
  • The only person (to date) to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences.

Years later, her daughter, Irene, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1935) jointly with her husband. The Curie family holds the record for the highest number of Nobel laureates.

The radioactive legacy of Marie Curie

When Marie Curie was studying radiation, its dangers were unknown. She carried radioactive test tubes in her pockets and was exposed to X-rays without protection. She died in 1934 from an illness that was likely a result of her exposure. Many of her personal items are still considered unsafe today due to their high levels of radioactivity.