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Marie Skłodowska Curie (Salomea Skłodowska

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Marie Curie

(7 Nov 1867 – 4 July 1934)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 older sister Bronisława to study in Paris, where she earned her higher
degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. Marie Curie died in 1934, aged
66, at a sanatorium in Sancellemoz (Haute-Savoie), France, of aplastic anemia 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.[10]

She shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie and


physicist Henri Becquerel. She won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Her achievements included the development of the theory of radioactivity (a term she
coined),[4][5] techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two
elements, polonium and radium. Under her direction, the world's first studies were
conducted into the treatment of neoplasms using radioactive isotopes. She founded
the Curie Institutes in Paris and in Warsaw, which remain major centres of medical
research today. 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,[6][7] never lost
her sense of Polish identity. She taught her daughters the Polish language and took
them on visits to Poland.[8] She named the first chemical element she
discovered polonium, after her native country.[b]
Marie Curie died in 1934, aged 66, at a sanatorium in Sancellemoz (Haute-Savoie),
France, of aplastic anemia 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.
[10]

Marie Skłodowska Curie (/ˈkjʊəri/ KEWR-ee,[3] French: [kyʁi], Polish: [kʲiˈri]; born Maria


Salomea Skłodowska;[a] 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-
French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She
was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, is the only woman to win the Nobel prize
twice, and is the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields. She
was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was also the first woman to
become a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be
entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.

Why?
Forme , she is one of th emost inspirable woman in the world, as she doesn’t not scare

Marie Curie, née Sklodowska


The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903
Born: 7 November 1867, Warsaw, Russian Empire (now Poland)
Died: 4 July 1934, Sallanches, France
Prize motivation: "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their
joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."
Prize share: 1/4
Also awarded: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911
Life

Marie Skłodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland, to a family of teachers who believed
strongly in education. She moved to Paris to continue her studies and there met Pierre
Curie, who became both her husband and colleague in the field of radioactivity. The
couple later shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. Marie was widowed in 1906, but
continued the couple's work and went on to become the first person ever to be awarded
two Nobel Prizes. During World War I, Curie organized mobile X-ray teams. The Curies'
daughter, Irene, was also jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside her
husband, Frederic Joliot.

Work

1903 Prize: The 1896 discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel inspired Marie and
Pierre Curie to further investigate this phenomenon. They examined many substances
and minerals for signs of radioactivity. They found that the mineral pitchblende was more
radioactive than uranium and concluded that it must contain other radioactive
substances. From it they managed to extract two previously unknown elements,
polonium and radium, both more radioactive than uranium.

1911 Prize: After Marie and Pierre Curie first discovered the radioactive elements
polonium and radium, Marie continued to investigate their properties. In 1910 she
successfully produced radium as a pure metal, which proved the new element's
existence beyond a doubt. She also documented the properties of the radioactive
elements and their compounds. Radioactive compounds became important as sources
of radiation in both scientific experiments and in the field of medicine, where they are
used to treat tumors.

arie Curie, née Maria Sklodowska, was born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867, the


daughter of a secondary-school teacher. She received a general education in local
schools and some scientific training from her father. She became involved in a students’
revolutionary organization and found it prudent to leave Warsaw, then in the part of
Poland dominated by Russia, for Cracow, which at that time was under Austrian rule. In
1891, she went to Paris to continue her studies at the Sorbonne where she obtained
Licenciateships in Physics and the Mathematical Sciences. She met Pierre Curie,
Professor in the School of Physics in 1894 and in the following year they were married.
She succeeded her husband as Head of the Physics Laboratory at the Sorbonne, gained
her Doctor of Science degree in 1903, and following the tragic death of Pierre Curie in
1906, she took his place as Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences, the
first time a woman had held this position. She was also appointed Director of the Curie
Laboratory in the Radium Institute of the University of Paris, founded in 1914.
Her early researches, together with her husband, were often performed under difficult
conditions, laboratory arrangements were poor and both had to undertake much
teaching to earn a livelihood. The discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in 1896
inspired the Curies in their brilliant researches and analyses which led to the isolation of
polonium, named after the country of Marie’s birth, and radium. Mme. Curie developed
methods for the separation of radium from radioactive residues in sufficient quantities to
allow for its characterization and the careful study of its properties, therapeutic properties
in particular.

Mme. Curie throughout her life actively promoted the use of radium to alleviate suffering
and during World War I, assisted by her daughter, Irene, she personally devoted herself
to this remedial work. She retained her enthusiasm for science throughout her life and
did much to establish a radioactivity laboratory in her native city – in 1929 President
Hoover of the United States presented her with a gift of $ 50,000, donated by American
friends of science, to purchase radium for use in the laboratory in Warsaw.

Mme. Curie, quiet, dignified and unassuming, was held in high esteem and admiration
by scientists throughout the world. She was a member of the Conseil du Physique
Solvay from 1911 until her death and since 1922 she had been a member of the
Committee of Intellectual Co-operation of the League of Nations. Her work is recorded in
numerous papers in scientific journals and she is the author of Recherches sur les
Substances Radioactives (1904), L’Isotopie et les Éléments Isotopes and the
classic Traité’ de Radioactivité (1910).
The importance of Mme. Curie’s work is reflected in the numerous awards bestowed on
her. She received many honorary science, medicine and law degrees and honorary
memberships of learned societies throughout the world. Together with her husband, she
was awarded half of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, for their study into the
spontaneous radiation discovered by Becquerel, who was awarded the other half of the
Prize. In 1911 she received a second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, in recognition
of her work in radioactivity. She also received, jointly with her husband, the Davy Medal
of the Royal Society in 1903 and, in 1921, President Harding of the United States, on
behalf of the women of America, presented her with one gram of radium in recognition of
her service to science.
For further details, cf. Biography of Pierre Curie. Mme. Curie died in Savoy, France, after
a short illness, on July 4, 1934.

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