Marie Curie
Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie[a] (Polish: [ˈmarja salɔˈmɛa skwɔˈdɔfska kʲiˈri] ; née Skłodowska; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie (/ˈkjʊəri/ KURE-ee,[1] French: [maʁi kyʁi]), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. Her husband, Pierre Curie, was a co-winner of her first Nobel Prize, making them the first married couple to win the Nobel Prize and launching the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was, in 1906, the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris.[2]
This article is about the Polish-French physicist. For the musician, see Marie Currie. For other uses, see Marie Curie (disambiguation).
Marie Curie
4 July 1934 (aged 66)
- Poland (by birth)
- France (by marriage)
- Pioneering research on radioactivity
- Discovering polonium and radium
- Nobel Prize in Physics (1903)
- Davy Medal (1903)
- Matteucci Medal (1904)
- Actonian Prize (1907)
- Elliott Cresson Medal (1909)
- Albert Medal (1910)
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911)
- Willard Gibbs Award (1921)
- John Scott Medal (1921)
- Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh (1931)
She was born in Warsaw, in what was then the Kingdom of Poland, part of the Russian Empire. She studied at Warsaw's clandestine Flying University and began her practical scientific training in Warsaw. In 1891, aged 24, she followed her elder sister Bronisława to study in Paris, where she earned her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. In 1895, she married the French physicist Pierre Curie, and she shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with him and with the physicist Henri Becquerel for their pioneering work developing the theory of "radioactivity"—a term she coined.[3][4] In 1906, Pierre Curie died in a Paris street accident. Marie won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements polonium and radium, using techniques she invented for isolating radioactive isotopes. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms by the use of radioactive isotopes. She founded the Curie Institute in Paris in 1920, and the Curie Institute in Warsaw in 1932; both remain major medical research centres. During World War I, she developed mobile radiography units to provide X-ray services to field hospitals.
While a French citizen, Marie Skłodowska Curie, who used both surnames,[5][6] never lost her sense of Polish identity. She taught her daughters the Polish language and took them on visits to Poland.[7] She named the first chemical element she discovered polonium, after her native country.[b] Marie Curie died in 1934, aged 66, at the Sancellemoz sanatorium in Passy (Haute-Savoie), France, of aplastic anemia likely from exposure to radiation in the course of her scientific research and in the course of her radiological work at field hospitals during World War I.[9] In addition to her Nobel Prizes, she received numerous other honours and tributes; in 1995 she became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Paris Panthéon,[10] and Poland declared 2011 the Year of Marie Curie during the International Year of Chemistry. She is the subject of numerous biographical works.
As one of the most famous scientists in history, Marie Curie has become an icon in the scientific world and has received tributes from across the globe, even in the realm of pop culture.[84] She also received many honorary degrees from universities across the world.[64]
Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences.[85] Awards and honours that she received include:
Entities that have been named after Marie Curie include:
Numerous biographies are devoted to her, including:
Marie Curie has been the subject of a number of films:
Curie is the subject of the 2013 play False Assumptions by Lawrence Aronovitch, in which the ghosts of three other women scientists observe events in her life.[106] Curie has also been portrayed by Susan Marie Frontczak in her play, Manya: The Living History of Marie Curie, a one-woman show which by 2014 had been performed in 30 U.S. states and nine countries.[107] Lauren Gunderson's 2019 play The Half-Life of Marie Curie portrays Curie during the summer after her 1911 Nobel Prize victory, when she was grappling with depression and facing public scorn over the revelation of her affair with Paul Langevin.
Curie has appeared on more than 600 postage stamps in many countries across the world.[108][109]
Between 1989–1996, she was featured on a 20,000-zloty banknote designed by Andrzej Heidrich.[110] In 2011, a commemorative 20-zloty banknote depicting Curie was issued by the National Bank of Poland on the 100th anniversary of the scientist receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[111]
In 1994, the Bank of France issued a 500-franc banknote featuring Marie and Pierre Curie.[112] As of the middle of 2024, Curie is depicted on French 50 euro cent coins to commemorate her impact on French history.[113]
