Marie Curie, née
Sklodowska
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911
Born: 7 November
1867, Warsaw, Russian Empire (now Poland)
Died: 4 July 1934,
Sallanches, France
Affiliation at the
time of the award: Sorbonne University, Paris, France
Prize motivation:
"in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the
discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and
the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element."
Prize share: 1/1
Also awarded: The
Nobel Prize in Physics 1903
Marie Sklodowska
was born in Warsaw, Poland, to a family of teachers who believed strongly in
education. She moved to Paris to continue her studies and there met Pierre
Curie, who became both her husband and colleague in the field of radioactivity.
The couple later shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. Marie was widowed in
1906, but continued the couple's work and went on to become the first person
ever to be awarded two Nobel Prizes. During World War I, Curie organized mobile
X-ray teams. The Curies' daughter, Irene, was also jointly awarded the Nobel
Prize in Chemistry alongside her husband, Frederic Joliot.
1903 Prize: The
1896 discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel inspired Marie and Pierre
Curie to further investigate this phenomenon. They examined many substances and
minerals for signs of radioactivity. They found that the mineral pitchblende
was more radioactive than uranium and concluded that it must contain other
radioactive substances. From it they managed to extract two previously unknown
elements, polonium and radium, both more radioactive than uranium.
1911 Prize: After
Marie and Pierre Curie first discovered the radioactive elements polonium and
radium, Marie continued to investigate their properties. In 1910 she
successfully produced radium as a pure metal, which proved the new element's
existence beyond a doubt. She also documented the properties of the radioactive
elements and their compounds. Radioactive compounds became important as sources
of radiation in both scientific experiments and in the field of medicine, where
they are used to treat tumors.
Radium and the New Concepts in Chemistry
some 15 years ago
the radiation of uranium was discovered by Henri Becquerel1, and
two years later the study of this phenomenon was extended to other substances,
first by me, and then by Pierre Curie and myself2. This
study rapidly led us to the discovery of new elements, the radiation of which,
while being analogous with that of uranium, was far more intense. All the
elements emitting such radiation I have termed radioactive,
and the new property of matter revealed in this emission has thus received the
name radioactivity. Thanks to this discovery of new, very
powerful radioactive substances, particularly radium, the study of
radioactivity progressed with marvellous rapidity: Discoveries followed each
other in rapid succession, and it was obvious that a new science was in course
of development. The Swedish
Academy of Sciences was kind enough to celebrate the birth
of this science by awarding the Nobel Prize for Physics to the first workers in
the field, Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie and
Marie Curie (1903).
On 4 July 1934, she died at the Sancellemoz sanatorium in Passy, Haute-Savoie, from aplastic anaemia believed to have
been contracted from her long-term exposure to radiation.[
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