Discover the Incredible Life and Work of Marie Curie
The scientist who carried radioactive radium in her pockets
"Marie Curie was a pioneer who devoted her entire career and life to science. After she and Pierre Curie discovered two new radioactive elements (1898) she went on to become: the first woman professor at the Faculty of Sciences at the Sorbonne (1906), a member of the Physics Solvay Council (1911-1933) and tof the Academy of Medicine (1922), and a two time Nobel Prize winner (1903 and 1911)..."
"The story of her life and scientific work is a rediscovery of a major part of the history of the twentieth century."
The Sklodowski children: Maria is on the center, 1872
Maria, her father and sisters, 1890
"Warsaw-Paris – Paris 1867>1895"
Maria Sklodowska, the fifth child in a family of Polish teachers, was born in Warsaw, Poland, which at that time was annexed by Russia.
After her excellent school examination results, she had to stop her studies as girls were not admitted to universities in Poland. She decided to give private lessons to help support her family, particularly her sister Bronislawa who was a medical student in Paris.
She later joined her in Paris to pursue her higher education in 1891 at the Faculty of Sciences at the Sorbonne.
Maria Sklodowska in Paris en 1892
Pierre Curie in 1904 Pierre Curie among a group of teachers from the EMPCI, 1894
Pierre Curie was a renowned physicist.
He was well known in the scientific community for his work on piezoelectricity, magnetism and symmetry, and was respected for his inventiveness and for his talents as an experimentalist.
He was professor in general physics at the Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry (Paris).
Marie and Pierre Curie for their wedding in 1895
In 1894, Maria Sklodowska began a study on the magnetic properties of steels.
She met Pierre Curie, a specialist in magnetism.
On July 26th, 1895, they had a quiet wedding in Sceaux.
They went on to have two children: Irène in 1897 and Ève in 1904
"“It would be a fine thing, in which I hardly dare
believe, to pass our lives near each other, hypnotized by our dreams: your
patriotic dream, our humanitarian dream, and our scientific dream.”"
Letter from Pierre to Marie, August 1894
Marie and Pierre Curie in their laboratory, circa 1898
"A common work 1895>1905"
Following the advice of Pierre Curie, Marie Curie decided to study the properties of radiation discovered by Henri Becquerel. She gave the name of “radioactivity” to the phenomenon she observed.
In 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered two new radioactive chemical elements, found in very small amounts in uranium ores: polonium and radium.
In June 1903, Marie Curie defended her doctoral thesis on « the new radioactive substances ».
A few months later Pierre and Marie Curie came under the spotlight when they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, with Henri Becquerel: their scientific work contributes to a new conception of the atom and matter.
This official recognition of years of joint research changed their lives forever.
Pierre and Marie Curie in their laboratory, circa 1898
"“We therefore believe that the substance which we have
isolated from pitchblende contains an unknown metal. If the existence of this
new metal is confirmed, we propose to call it “Polonium”, from the name of the
country of one of us.”"
P.
Curie and M. S.-Curie, Science Academy Report, July 18th, 1898
Despite the notoriety gained from the Nobel Prize, the couple kept working in hideous conditions, especially as the chemical separation of radium was long and delicate.
In 1904, Pierre Curie was appointed to the newly created chair of physics at the Sorbonne Faculty of Sciences, and set up a small laboratory in a university annex in Paris.
On April 19th 1906, Pierre Curie was killed in a road accident, near the Academy of Sciences in Paris. He was forty-six.
He left Marie alone, with her two daughters, to continue to pursue their research.
Ève, Marie and Irène Curie, 1908
Business card of Marie Curie after obtaining her professorship at the Sorbonne in 1908
While raising her two daughters, Marie Curie continued her research work, while also taking over her husband’s course at the Sorbonne in physics after his untimely death. Marie Curie was the first woman to be appointed professor in a French university.
This was a traumatic time for Marie Curie, but her determination and scientific rigor led to international recognition: in 1911, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
"“The chemical work which was aimed to isolate radium in
a state of pure salt and characterized as a new element was made by me, but is
intimately linked to the common world.”"
Marie
Curie, Nobel lecture, 1911
"Ordeals and successes 1906>1918"
Radium Institute, Curie Laboratory, years 1920
Marie et Irène Curie with american military students, 1919
Marie Curie successfully created a large laboratory devoted to research into radiation and studies of its biological effects. The Radium Institute in Paris was inaugurated in 1914. Irène would meet her future husband Frédéric Joliot in the laboratory there.
During the 1914-18 war, Marie Curie helped organize the army’s radiology department.
She oversaw the fitting out of vehicles, called “little Curies”, with radiological equipment and trained teams to use them.
Marie Curie driving a "Little Curie", 1917
"An international figure 1918>1934"
Due to her status as a renowned scientist, Marie Curie took part in numerous scientific and medical congresses.
Her laboratory was an international model for the study of radioactive bodies and the use of radiation in the fight against cancer.
Marie Curie at the first Solvay Conference, 1911
In 1920, she created the Curie Foundation with Dr. Regaud which rapidly became an international reference in the treatment of cancer by radiation.
Unfortunately, Radium was rare and precious, but necessary for her research.
In 1921, a large fundraising effort was organized among American women so that one gram of radium could be bought for Marie Curie. She traveled to the United States where she was received this with pride.
In 1922, Marie Curie was elected as a member of the Academy of Medicine. She was also a member of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations.
Marie Curie and the US President W.G. Harding, 1921
Visit of the Radium Institute by the french President G. Doumergue, 1928
"“The
undersigned members think that the Academy would be honored by electing Madame
Curie as an associate member, in recognition of the part she has played in the
discovery of a new treatment: curietherapy.”"
Academy
of Medicine, February 7th, 1922
The recognition was international. Marie Curie was brought to visit many countries to defend the scientific activities of her laboratories and meet her scientific counterparts.
Marie and Irène Curie in Rio de Janeiro, 1926
Marie Curie planting a tree at the Radium Institute of Warsaw, May 29th 1932
Radium Institute of Warsaw, 1930
Under the direction of Marie Curie, researches on radiation developed at the Radium Institute: in 1934, Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie discovered artificial radioactivity.
She did not, however, see their work rewarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935: Marie Curie died July 4th 1934 in Haute-Savoie.
"Through
her life and work, Marie Curie came to personify devotion to science and
the successful woman.
Marie
Curie is one of the great scientific figures of the twentieth century."
Marie Curie on the terrace of the Curie Laboratory at the Radium Institute, 1923
Conception—Musée Curie, Paris
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