Marie Sklodowska Curie
Polish-Born Chemist and Physicist
1867-1934
One never notices what has been done; one can
only see what remains to be done.
~Marie Curie, letter to her brother, 1894
Maria
Sklodowska-Curie was one of the first woman
scientists to win worldwide fame, and indeed,
one of the great scientists of this century
. A noted chemist and
physicist Marie Curie was born Marie Sklodowska,
the youngest of five children, in Warsaw ,
Poland on November 7, 1867 , to noted educators
Wladyslaw and Bonislaw Sklodowska. Her father
was the president of Lublin University and her
mother taught in several universities in Warsaw
.
Early in
life, Marie discovered her love for physics and
chemistry and she dreamed of studying at the
Sorbonne, in Paris . She realized that dream and
graduated from the Sorbonne in 1894.
In 1895,
Marie married Pierre Curie, a professor of
physics at the School of Physics and Chemistry
in Paris , France . They became the parents of
two daughters, Irene and Eve. In 1898, the
Curies announced the discovery of the elements
polonium (named after Poland ) and radium.
Shortly after these discoveries, Marie was
awarded her doctorate.
In 1903,
Marie, along with her husband Pierre, was
awarded the Nobel Prize for physics.
After her
husband’s death in 1906, she was asked to
succeed him in his professorship in physics at
the Sorbonne. This was the first time such an
honor was bestowed upon a woman. In 1911, Madame
Curie received a second Nobel Prize for
chemistry, thus becoming the first person and
only woman in history to be awarded two Nobel
Prizes. Also in 1911, by appointment of a
commission of scientists, Madame Curie prepared
the international standard of radium chloride,
which is preserved in the International Bureau
of Weights and Measures. During Marie’s
lifetime, she received over 125 degrees, medals,
and decorations from universities and
organizations around the world.
Marie
Curie died on July 4, 1934 . She is the first
woman which has been laid to rest under the
famous dome of the Pantheon in Paris for her own
merits.
Her
daughter, Irene, was also a gifted chemist,
continuing the accomplishments of her parents in
the fields of physics and chemistry. |
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