Marie Curie 1+2

1.
Early years
Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw, in Congress Poland in the Russian Empire, on 7
November 1867, the fifth and youngest child of well-known teachers Bronisława, and
Władysław Skłodowski.
Maria's mother Bronisława died of tuberculosis in May 1878, when Maria was ten years old.
Władysław Skłodowski taught mathematics and physics, subjects that Maria was to pursue, and
after Russian authorities eliminated laboratory instruction from the Polish schools, he brought
much of the laboratory equipment home and instructed his children in its use.
Maria continued to educate herself, reading books, exchanging letters, and being tutored
herself. She tutored, studied at the Flying University, and began her practical scientific training
(1890 – 91) in a chemistry laboratory at the Museum of Industry and Agriculture.
2. Life in Paris, Pierre Curie, and first Nobel Prize

In late 1891, Maria (or Marie, as she would be known in France) left Poland for France. In 1893,
she was awarded a degree in physics and began work in an industrial laboratory of Gabriel
Lippmann. Meanwhile, she continued studying at the University of Paris and with the aid of a
fellowship she was able to earn a second degree in 1894.
Marie had begun her scientific career in Paris with an investigation of the magnetic properties of
various steels. That same year, Pierre Curie - an instructor at The City of Paris Industrial Physics
and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution - entered her life. Their mutual passion for science
brought them increasingly closer, and they began to develop feelings for one another. On 26 July
1895, they were married in Sceaux.
Their marriage marked the start of a partnership that was soon to achieve results of world
significance, in particular the discovery of polonium in the summer of 1898 and that of radium a
few months later. While Pierre Curie devoted himself chiefly to the physical study of the new
radiations, Marie Curie struggled to obtain pure radium in the metallic state - achieved with the
help of the chemist André-Louis Debierne, one of Pierre Curie’s pupils. On the results of this
research, Marie Curie received her doctorate of science in June 1903 and, with Pierre, was
awarded the Davy Medal of the Royal Society. Also in 1903 they shared with Becquerel the
Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery of radioactivity.
The birth of her two daughters, Irène and Ève, in 1897 and 1904, did not interrupt Marie’s
intensive scientific work. She was appointed lecturer in physics at the École Normale Supérieure
for girls in Sèvres (1900) and introduced there a method of teaching based on experimental
demonstrations. In December 1904 she was appointed chief assistant in the laboratory directed
by Pierre Curie.
•In 1904, her second daughter - Eva Curie was born.
•In 1906, Pierre Curie died in an accident when he was hit by a horse-drawn carriage on the
streets of Paris.
•In 1908: Became the first female professor at the University of Soc Bonn.
• 1910: Success in producing Radium. Published “Essay on Radioactivity”.
• 1911: Marie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 for discovering the elements polonium
(named after her hometown) and radium, using techniques she invented to separate radioactive
isotopes.
(Many of the world's first studies were conducted to treat tumors)
• 1914: Became director of the “Radium Research Institute” of the University of Paris.
(During World War I, she participated in activities to rescue wounded soldiers and use radiation
to treat diseases.)
• She founded the Curie Institute in Paris in 1920, and the Curie Institute in Warsaw in 1932
(both are still major medical research centers today)
[•Despite being a French citizen, Marie Skłodowska Curie (using both surnames) never lost
consciousness about her Polish identity. She taught her daughters Polish and took them to visit
Poland.]
-1933-
4/7/1934 - until now
1. 1934: Curie visited Poland for the last time in early 1934. A few months later, on 4 July
1934, she died aged 66 at the Sancellemoz sanatorium in Passy, Haute-Savoie,
- reason: aplastic anaemia believed to have been contracted from her long-term exposure to
radiation, causing damage to her bone marrow.
- She was interred at the cemetery in Sceaux, alongside her husband Pierre.
2. 1955
- The French Government solemnly held a ceremony to bring the remains of two great
scientists Pierre Curie and Marie Curie into the Panthéon - Paris, a place to honour the great men
of France.
- Marie Curie became the first woman to be interred at the Panthéon for her own
achievements. And she is the second wonma to be interred at the Pan
3. 1890
- Because of their levels of radioactive contamination, her papers from the 1890s are
considered too dangerous to handle. Even her cookbooks are highly radioactive. Her papers are
kept in lead-lined boxes, and those who consult them must wear protective clothing.
4. About her family
Legendary family: 5 members won Nobel prizes
- In 1903, Marie Curie received the Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband for research
on radiation.
- In 1911, Marie Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
- In 1935, Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot-Curie received the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry.
- In 1965, Henry Labouisse, the husband of journalist Ève Curie, was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize.

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1.

2. Life in Paris, Pierre Curie, and first Nobel Prize

• 1910: Success in producing Radium. Published “Essay on Radioactivity”.

(Many of the world's first studies were conducted to treat tumors)

(both are still major medical research centers today)

4/7/1934 - until now

4. About her family

Legendary family: 5 members won Nobel prizes

- In 1911, Marie Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

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