About Marie Curie

Marie moved to France in 1891 to study physics and mathematics at the Sorbonne. She took math classes and was taught by two highly regarded mathematicians, Paul Painlevé and Paul Apell, and by the physicist Gabriel Lippmann. The latter, a Nobel prize winner in physics in 1908, welcomed the young woman to his laboratory in 1893 after she had obtained her degree in physics. In 1894, impressed by her various qualities, Lippmann gave her full authority over a project to study steel magnetization.

But the young researcher lacked knowledge on matters of magnetism which led her to seek advice from one of the best specialists of her time: Pierre Curie. Thus began one of the most famous scientific relationships in history. Pierre and Marie married on July 26, 1895, in Sceaux, France. In 1897, Marie gave birth to a girl, Irene, and in 1904 to another girl, named Eve. Irene, like her mother, was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

In 1895, Marie began to do someher research on a new phenomenon that had recently been discovered by Henri Becquerel: it. This new phenomenon was named radioactivity. She was soon joined by her husband, who gave up his own research to focus on hers. For months, the two physicists carried out grueling research focusing on pitchblende, a uranium filled ore. That same year, they announced that they had succeeded in extracting two new radioactive elements from this ore: , radium and polonium. This discovery, which they refused to patent as they felt it belonged to humanity, won them and Henri Becquerel the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics.

On April 19, 1906, Pierre Curie was killed in a street accident. Marie was devastated by her husband's death. On May 13, 1906 the physics department of the University of Paris decided to retain the chair position that had been created for her late husband and offered it to Marie. She accepted it, hoping to create a world-class laboratory as a tribute to her husband. She was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris.