One of the most recognizable figures in science, “Madame Curie” has captured the public imagination for more than 100 years and inspired generations of women scientists.
Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867–1934) was the first person ever to receive two Nobel Prizes, the first person to win in two different fields. The first in 1903 in physics, shared with Pierre Curie (her husband) and Henri Becquerel for the discovery of the phenomenon of radioactivity, and the second in 1911 in chemistry for the discovery of the radioactive elements polonium and radium.
Curie was best known for her work in radioactivity which had saved a millions of lives during the first world war and ultimately led her own death.
Mary Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland under the control of the Russian Empire on November-07,1867. She was the youngest child of teachers. Her mother, Bronislawa Sklodowska was the head teacher of the prestigious boarding school specially for girls. Her father, Wladyslaw Sklodowski taught physics and Mathematics and was proud of his Polish heritage. As a result of his patriotism, his russian supervisors forced him into lower-paying positions. He also lost his savings through a bad investment
Maria finished her class, but wasn’t allowed to attend university because she was a woman. The Russian empire banned women from getting a university education. She and her sister registered themselves in a secret university named Flying university or Floating university in Warsaw .
She enrolled her in University of Paris known as the Sorbonne, where she studied Physics and mathematics. She earned a degree despite of her difficulties in Mathematics and Physics.
Marie Curie would earn her Doctorate/Doctor of Science degree from the Sorbonne in 1903. She did her thesis on radiation, which was recently discovered in Uranium by henry Becquerel. Curie was interested in Becquerel’s discovery and investigated further. She used an electrometer invented by her husband and his brother to measure radioactivity in many substances and minerals. She then realized through her experiments that, radiation was a property of the element in uranium, yet she observed the mineral pitchblende which primarily contains Uranium. She noticed it was far more radioactive than Uranium could explain. She was intrigued about the self questions and then he dropped of his own work and join his wife in her research. they grounded up tons of pitchblende and discovered an element that was 400times more radioactive than uranium, and then they named the element after her country of birth as polonium and then they discovered another element that gave off 900times more radiation than polonium and then came into the picture “RADIUM”– the unglamorous work of extracting and isolating the elements took place in a leaky and drafty shack near Pierre’s work as they didn’t have a dedicated lab space.
Their efforts got paid off. The Nobel prize in Physics in 1903 went to Marie, Piere and Becquerel for their research in radiation. This left a mark as Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize.
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