Who Was Marie Curie?

Where was Marie Curie born, and when did she move to Paris?

Marie Curie was born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw on November 7, 1867.^[1][2] Warsaw was then in the part of Poland ruled by the Russian Empire.^[1][6]

She was an excellent pupil, but the Institut Curie notes that girls were barred from university.^[6] In 1891 she went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne, and she soon began using the French form of her first name, Marie.^[1][7] She earned a degree in physics in 1893 and one in mathematics in 1894.^[6]

In 1894 she met Pierre Curie, who was already a recognized scientist, and they married on July 26, 1895.^[1][6][7]

How did Marie and Pierre Curie discover polonium and radium?

Henri Becquerel's discovery of radioactivity in 1896 inspired the Curies' research.^[1] Marie found that two uranium ores, pitchblende and chalcolite, were much more radioactive than pure uranium.^[3] She concluded that the ores might contain undiscovered radioactive elements, and Pierre set aside his own research on crystals to help her find them.^[3]

In July 1898 the Curies reported a new element, which they named polonium in honor of the country of Marie's birth.^[3] A second paper, in December 1898, described another new element, which they named radium from the Latin word for ray.^[3] Marie Curie gave the name "radioactivity" to this natural ability to emit radiation.^[6]

To convince other scientists, Marie set out to isolate the new elements, working in an abandoned shed that had once been a medical school dissecting room.^[3] It took her more than three years to isolate one tenth of a gram of pure radium chloride.^[3] She never succeeded in isolating polonium, which has a half-life of only 138 days.^[3] In 1910 she produced radium as a pure metal.^[2]

Why did Marie Curie win two Nobel Prizes?

The Nobel Prize in Physics for 1903 was divided in two: Becquerel received one half, and Marie and Pierre Curie shared the other half for their study of the radiation he had discovered.^[1] The award made Marie Curie the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.^[6][7] In June of the same year she had become the first woman to earn a doctorate in physics in France.^[1][7]

Pierre Curie died in an accident in 1906, knocked down by a horse-drawn vehicle.^[6][7] Marie took over his physics course at the Sorbonne that November and was named full professor in 1908, the first woman to hold a university professorship in France.^[7]

In 1911 she received a second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry and this time alone.^[1][2] It recognized the discovery of radium and polonium, the isolation of radium, and the study of that element and its compounds.^[2] She was the first person ever to be awarded two Nobel Prizes, and the Institut Curie describes her as the only woman to have won a second one.^[2][6]

What did Marie Curie do in the First World War?

During the First World War, Curie organized mobile X-ray teams.^[2] She realized that X-rays could save soldiers' lives by helping doctors see bullets, shrapnel and broken bones, and she persuaded the French government to let her set up the country's first military radiology centers.^[4] As director of the Red Cross Radiology Service, she obtained cars from wealthy acquaintances and had body shops convert them into vans.^[4] She learned to drive so that she could operate a vehicle herself if necessary, and chose her daughter Irène, then 17, as her first assistant.^[4]

Sources differ on the details: the American Institute of Physics (AIP) history exhibit says the first of 20 radiology vehicles was ready by late October 1914 and that French soldiers nicknamed them "petites Curies" (little Curies).^[4] The Musée Curie and the Institut Curie instead count 18 cars and say the nickname came later, from her daughter Eve.^[6][7]

How did Marie Curie die?

Marie Curie died on July 4, 1934, at the age of 66.^[1][6] NobelPrize.org gives the place as Sallanches, France; the Musée Curie names the Sancellemoz sanatorium in Haute-Savoie.^[2][7]

The NobelPrize.org biography says only that she died after a short illness.^[1] According to the AIP exhibit, the sanatorium director reported an aplastic pernicious anemia and said her bone marrow had probably been injured by a long accumulation of radiation.^[5] The Institut Curie states that she had been poorly protected while handling radioactive elements and was diagnosed with pernicious anemia.^[6]

She was buried on July 6, 1934, in the cemetery at Sceaux where Pierre lay.^[5] In 1995 the remains of both were moved to the Panthéon in Paris, making her the first woman laid to rest there for her own achievements.^[5][6][7]

What is Marie Curie's legacy?

Radioactive compounds became important radiation sources for experiments and for medicine, where they are used to treat tumors.^[2]

The Institut Curie dates the creation of the Institut du Radium in Paris to 1909 and the completion of its building to 1914, while the NobelPrize.org biography gives 1914 as the founding year.^[1][6] Curie headed its physics and chemistry laboratory, while a second laboratory studied the medical effects of radiation.^[6] The Fondation Curie, created in 1921 to finance the work, paved the way for what later became the Institut Curie.^[6] She also did much to establish a radioactivity laboratory in her native Warsaw.^[1]

Her daughter Irène helped her provide mobile X-ray units during the war and later worked at the institute her parents had founded.^[8] There she did the work that won her and her husband, Frédéric Joliot, the joint Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1935, for their synthesis of new radioactive elements.^[8][9]