Marie Curie

Marie Curie
Born	Maria Salomea Skłodowska 07 11, 1867
Birthplace	Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Died	Template:Death date and age Passy, Haute-Savoie, France
Nationality	Polish, French
Occupation	Physicist, chemist
Known for	Research on radioactivity, discovery of polonium and radium
Education	University of Paris (PhD)
Spouse(s)	Pierre Curie (m. 1895; d. 1906)
Children	2
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (1903), Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911), Davy Medal (1903)

Marie Curie (born Maria Salomea Skłodowska; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish-born physicist and chemist who became a naturalised French citizen and conducted pioneering research on radioactivity — a term she coined. She shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie and physicist Henri Becquerel for their joint research on radiation phenomena, and she won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements polonium and radium, the isolation of radium, and the study of its nature and compounds. These achievements made her the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win the Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields. Born in Warsaw during a period of Russian imperial rule over Poland, Marie Curie carried her Polish identity throughout her life, naming the element polonium after her homeland. She went on to establish two research institutions — the Curie Institute in Paris (1920) and the Curie Institute in Warsaw (1932) — both of which remain active centres of medical research. During World War I, she developed mobile radiography units to provide X-ray services to field hospitals, directly contributing to the treatment of wounded soldiers. She died on 4 July 1934 of aplastic anaemia, a condition attributed to prolonged exposure to radiation during her scientific and wartime radiological work.

Early Life

Maria Salomea Skłodowska was born on 7 November 1867 in Warsaw, then part of the Kingdom of Poland within the Russian Empire. She was the youngest of five children in a family deeply committed to education. Both of her parents were teachers; her father, Władysław Skłodowski, was a mathematics and physics instructor, and her mother, Bronisława Skłodowska (née Boguska), ran a boarding school for girls.

Curie's early years were marked by personal tragedy and political oppression. Poland was under Russian control, and Polish cultural and educational institutions were suppressed. The Skłodowski family faced financial difficulties after Władysław lost his position due to pro-Polish sentiments. Marie's childhood was further shadowed by the deaths of her eldest sister Zofia, who died of typhus, and her mother, who succumbed to tuberculosis. These losses had a profound effect on the young Maria.

Despite these hardships, Maria excelled academically from an early age. She graduated first in her class from the gymnasium at the age of fifteen. However, as a woman in Russian-controlled Poland, she was barred from enrolling in any regular institution of higher learning. She and her sister Bronisława entered into a pact: Maria would work to support Bronisława's medical studies in Paris, and Bronisława would later help fund Maria's education. During this period, Maria worked as a governess for several years while also attending Warsaw's clandestine Flying University (Uniwersytet Latający), an underground educational institution that accepted women and operated in defiance of Russian authorities. There she began her practical scientific training, gaining foundational knowledge in physics and natural sciences that would shape her subsequent career. Maria also pursued self-study during her years as a governess, reading extensively in physics and mathematics to prepare herself for formal university education abroad.

Education

In 1891, at the age of 24, Maria Skłodowska followed her sister Bronisława to Paris to enrol at the University of Paris (the Sorbonne). Studying in France represented both an intellectual liberation and a period of considerable material hardship. She lived frugally, often in cold garrets, surviving on meagre rations while immersing herself in her studies.

At the Sorbonne, she pursued degrees in physics and mathematics. She earned her licence in physics in 1893, finishing first in her class, and a second degree in mathematics the following year. Her academic performance attracted attention and led to early research opportunities. It was during this period that she began using the French form of her name, Marie. She would go on to earn her doctorate from the University of Paris in 1903, becoming the first woman in France to receive a PhD in physics. Her doctoral thesis, on the study of radioactive substances, laid the groundwork for some of the most significant scientific discoveries of the twentieth century.

Career

Early Research and Marriage to Pierre Curie

In 1894, Marie Skłodowska met Pierre Curie, a French physicist who was already known for his work on crystallography and magnetism. They married on 26 July 1895 in a simple civil ceremony. Their partnership was both personal and professional, and it proved to be one of the most productive collaborations in the history of science.

Marie began her doctoral research by investigating the phenomenon that Henri Becquerel had discovered in 1896 — the emission of rays by uranium salts. Using an electrometer designed by Pierre and his brother Jacques, she systematically measured the radiation emitted by various uranium compounds. She made the critical observation that the intensity of radiation was proportional to the quantity of uranium present and was not affected by the chemical form of the compound or by external conditions such as temperature or light. This led her to hypothesise that the radiation was an atomic property of uranium, rather than the result of a chemical interaction — a fundamental insight that reframed scientific understanding of the atom.

Marie coined the term "radioactivity" to describe this phenomenon. She also discovered that thorium emitted similar rays. Her subsequent investigations of the mineral pitchblende (uraninite) revealed that it was significantly more radioactive than could be accounted for by its uranium content alone. This finding suggested the presence of unknown radioactive elements within the mineral.

Discovery of Polonium and Radium

Working together, Marie and Pierre Curie undertook the painstaking task of isolating the unknown elements from pitchblende. In 1898, they announced the discovery of two new elements. The first they named polonium, in honour of Marie's native Poland, which at the time did not exist as an independent state. The second, an element of even greater radioactivity, they named radium. The naming of polonium was a deliberate political act, intended to draw international attention to Poland's lack of sovereignty.

The isolation of radium in measurable quantities required an enormous physical effort. The Curies processed tonnes of pitchblende residue, working in a converted shed at the School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry in Paris that lacked proper ventilation and safety equipment. The conditions were arduous, involving heavy physical labour — stirring large vats of boiling ore and carrying heavy containers — as well as exposure to dangerous levels of radiation, the hazards of which were not yet understood. By 1902, Marie had succeeded in isolating one-tenth of a gram of radium chloride from several tonnes of pitchblende, and she determined radium's atomic weight.

Nobel Prizes

In 1903, Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, and Henri Becquerel were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel." Marie Curie thereby became the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize. The award brought international fame, though the Curies were characteristically modest in their public demeanour, preferring the laboratory to the lecture hall.

In 1911, Marie Curie was awarded a second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, for the discovery of radium and polonium, the isolation of radium, and the study of its chemical properties and compounds. This made her the first person — and, as of the early twenty-first century, the only person — to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific disciplines. The 1911 award was notable in part because it came during a period of intense personal scrutiny; following Pierre's death, French tabloid newspapers had published stories about her private life, and there was opposition in some quarters to recognising her individually. Nevertheless, the Nobel Committee honoured her achievements unequivocally.

Professor at the University of Paris

Pierre Curie died on 19 April 1906, struck by a horse-drawn vehicle while crossing a street in Paris. His sudden death was a devastating personal blow. The University of Paris subsequently offered Marie the chair in physics that Pierre had held, making her the first woman to become a professor at the university, a position she assumed in 1906. She continued to develop the research programme they had built together, and her lectures drew large audiences.

In this role, Marie Curie expanded the scope of radioactivity research, training a new generation of scientists and continuing to refine techniques for the measurement and isolation of radioactive elements. She became a central figure in European physics and an increasingly prominent public intellectual.

World War I: Petites Curies

When World War I began in 1914, Marie Curie recognised the potential of X-ray technology to assist battlefield surgeons in locating bullets and fractures within wounded soldiers. She developed mobile radiography units — vehicles equipped with X-ray apparatus and photographic darkroom equipment — that could be driven to field hospitals near the front lines. These vehicles became known as petites Curies ("little Curies").

Curie personally drove one of these vehicles to the front and trained women volunteers as X-ray operators. She also established stationary radiological centres in hospitals throughout France. It is estimated that over a million wounded soldiers were examined with X-ray equipment during the war as a result of her efforts. Her daughter Irène, still a teenager, assisted her in this work, gaining experience that would contribute to Irène's own later career in physics.

Curie's wartime service exposed her to significant amounts of radiation, which likely contributed to the health problems she experienced in later years. Despite the hazards, she received little official recognition for her war work at the time.

Curie Institutes

Following the war, Curie focused on establishing research institutions that would carry forward the study of radioactivity and its medical applications. In 1920, she founded the Curie Institute (Institut Curie) in Paris, which combined a laboratory for research in radioactivity with a section devoted to the biological and medical applications of radiation, including the treatment of cancer. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms using radioactive isotopes.

In 1921, Curie made a celebrated tour of the United States, where she was received by President Warren G. Harding and presented with a gram of radium — purchased through a national fundraising campaign organised by journalist Marie Meloney — for use in her research.

In 1932, she established a second Curie Institute in Warsaw, fulfilling a long-held ambition to contribute to the scientific development of her native country. Both institutes remain active centres of medical research and cancer treatment.

Personal Life

Marie Curie married Pierre Curie on 26 July 1895. The couple had two daughters: Irène, born in 1897, and Ève, born in 1904. Irène Joliot-Curie went on to become a physicist and chemist, and she and her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie were jointly awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of artificial radioactivity, extending the remarkable scientific legacy of the Curie family to a total of five Nobel Prizes. Ève Curie became a journalist and author; her biography of her mother, Madame Curie (1937), became an international bestseller and remains one of the most widely read accounts of Marie Curie's life.

Despite becoming a French citizen, Marie Curie maintained a strong Polish identity throughout her life. She taught her daughters the Polish language and took them on visits to Poland. The naming of polonium was the most visible expression of her enduring connection to her homeland.

Pierre Curie's death in 1906 was a turning point in Marie's personal life. She was reported to have been deeply affected by the loss, and she channelled much of her grief into her scientific work. She never remarried.

Curie's health deteriorated in her later years, a consequence of decades of exposure to ionising radiation. She carried test tubes of radioactive isotopes in her pockets and stored them in her desk, unaware of the cumulative damage this caused. She died on 4 July 1934 at the Sancellemoz sanatorium in Passy, Haute-Savoie, France. The cause of death was aplastic anaemia, a condition in which the bone marrow fails to produce adequate blood cells, attributed to her prolonged radiation exposure.

Recognition

Marie Curie received numerous honours during her lifetime and posthumously. In addition to her two Nobel Prizes (Physics, 1903; Chemistry, 1911), she was awarded the Davy Medal by the Royal Society of London in 1903, jointly with Pierre Curie. She was the first woman elected to the French Academy of Medicine.

In 1995, Marie and Pierre Curie's remains were transferred to the Panthéon in Paris, making Marie the first woman to be entombed there on the basis of her own achievements. This recognition cemented her status as a central figure in French national history and in the broader history of science.

Poland declared 2011 the Year of Marie Curie, coinciding with the International Year of Chemistry, marking the centenary of her second Nobel Prize. The European Commission named its prestigious fellowship programme for researchers the "Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions" in her honour.

The synthetic element curium (element 96), discovered in 1944, was named in honour of both Marie and Pierre Curie. The element name follows the tradition of naming transuranium elements after notable scientists.

The Marie Curie charity, a major UK-based organisation providing end-of-life care and bereavement support, bears her name, reflecting the enduring association of Curie's legacy with medical compassion and scientific service.

Legacy

Marie Curie's contributions to science fundamentally altered the understanding of matter and energy. Her identification of radioactivity as an atomic property — rather than a chemical one — was a pivotal insight that contributed to the development of atomic physics in the twentieth century. Her meticulous experimental work in isolating radium established new standards of precision in analytical chemistry and provided scientists with a tool that proved essential in probing the structure of the atom.

Her research had far-reaching practical consequences. The therapeutic use of radiation in treating cancer, which she championed through the Curie Institutes, evolved into the modern field of radiation oncology. The mobile X-ray units she designed during World War I anticipated the use of portable medical imaging technology that became standard in military and civilian medicine.

Curie's career also had a significant impact on the place of women in science. As the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first woman to hold a professorship at the University of Paris, and the first woman interred in the Panthéon on the basis of her own accomplishments, she broke barriers in institutions that had long excluded women. Her example inspired subsequent generations of women scientists, including her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie, who became a Nobel laureate in her own right.

Her personal notebooks and laboratory equipment remain radioactive to this day and are stored in lead-lined boxes at the Bibliothèque nationale de France; researchers wishing to consult them must wear protective clothing and sign a liability waiver. This fact serves as a tangible reminder of the physical dangers Curie faced in her work — dangers she endured without full knowledge of their consequences.

Marie Curie has been the subject of numerous biographies, films, and theatrical productions. Her daughter Ève Curie's Madame Curie (1937) was adapted into a 1943 Hollywood film starring Greer Garson. Lauren Redniss's illustrated biography Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout (2010) was adapted into a 2019 film. Theatrical works based on her life have also been produced, bringing her story to new audiences.

The Curie family's collective scientific output — five Nobel Prizes across two generations — remains unmatched in the history of the Nobel awards. Marie Curie's name endures as a synonym for scientific dedication and intellectual courage, invoked in contexts ranging from university research programmes to charitable organisations devoted to medical care.