Marie Curie Bio Paper
Life
Family
Career/Contributions
✅Born 7 November 1867 in Warsaw, Poland (then part of russia)
Died 4 July 1934 in Passy, France due to a rare blood disorder caused by excessive radiation exposure
✅Children Irene (b. 1897, France, d. 1956, France from leukemia - scientist - won Nobel Prize with husband in chemistry in 1935) - Eve (b. 1904, France, d. 2007, New York from old age - journalist, most famous for mother's biography)
✅Husband Pierre (b. 1859 France, d. 1906 in a carriage accident on a rainy day) - married 1895
Sources
Fox, Margalit. “Eve Curie Labouisse, Mother's Biographer, Dies at 102.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Oct. 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/arts/25labouisse.html.
“Marie Curie - Questions and Answers.” Nobelprize.org, 22 Jan. 2008, www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1911/marie-curie-faq.html.
✅she graduated high school at 15, with honors of course, but didn't leave her parents at four siblings in Poland until age 24, when she moved to France to further her studies.
first woman to win the nobel prize!!
✅her maiden name was Maria Sklodowska, and her nickname was Manya. She changed this when she moved to France after meeting husband Pierre at Sorbonne.
✅both parents were teachers, which instilled in her a love of learning. mother and oldest sister when marie was 11
her and pierre's ashes are now buried with those of famous Frenchmen such as author Victor Hugo and politician Jean Jaurès under the Paris Pantheon.
Raynal , Florence. “A Nobel Prize Pioneer at the Panthéon.” About Marie Curie, www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/rich/mariecurie.htm.
1903: she and pierre won the Nobel Prize for Physics
1911: Nobel Prize for Chemistry, discovery of polonium and radium
discovered the elements radium and polonium
two degrees: physics and mathematics
✅* “It would, nevertheless, be a beautiful thing in which I hardly dare believe, to pass through life together hypnotized in our dreams: your dream for your country; our dream for humanity; our dream for science." -pierre, in a 1894 letter to his future wife
Des Jardins, Julie. “Madame Curie's Passion.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Oct. 2011, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/madame-curies-passion-74183598/.
many people critiqued and bullied her for spending more time in the lab than with her daughters
⭐“one never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.” -marie curie
first woman in Europe to earn PhD in physics (1903)
🖊"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"
Nobel Lectures. “Marie Curie - Biographical.” Nobelprize.org, www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-bio.html.
created x-ray vans to help wounded during war
her work on radioactivity was the groundbreaking for modern-day cancer treatment
while she was denied membership to several academic institutes, she never let it stop her. marie curie never stopped working until her work killed her.
SCANDAL 1911: alleged affair with her late husband's physics student Paul Langevin, which ruined her reputation. this led to Langevin's wife divorcing him and gaining full custody of their four children.
in this acceptance speech, she made it clear that she can be on her own and successful without her husband 🎊
Pasachoff, Naomi. “Meeting Pierre Curie.” Marie Curie: In Her Own Words, American Institute of Physics, history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/brief/06_quotes/quotes_05.html.
first person to never receive a nobel prize more than once
Paschoff, Naomi. “Scandal and Recovery.” Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity, American Institute of Physics, 2000, history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/scandal1.htm.