Marie Curie
Polish-French Physicist and Chemist
1867 – 1934 A.D.

Marie Skladowska Curie, a Polish-French physicist and chemist, born in Warsaw, where her father was a professor of physics in the University. She completed a course of study in Warsaw, and in 1891 went to Paris, taking a degree in physical and chemical sciences there two years later.

In 1895 she married Pierre Curie, and to the researches on radio-active substances and radio-activity which have made her name and that of her husband famous, she contributed at least an equal share. The honors and prizes for the discover of the radio-active elements were awarded jointly to her and her husband, including part of the Nobel prize for physics in 1903.

On her husband’s death, in 1906, she succeeded him as professor of physics and director of the physical laboratory at the Sorbonne, where she continued her researches, and later became professor also in the Normal School at Sèvres. In 1910 she was awarded the Albert medal of the Royal Society of Arts, and in 1911 she received the Nobel prize for chemistry. She visited the United States in 1921, and was everywhere received with honors.

The value and importance of Mme. Curie’s discovery, places her name among the greatest and most distinguished in the world of science.

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.