Marie Salomea Sklodowska-Curie was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland. Of all the notable scientists in history, she is perhaps the strongest representation of a woman succeeding against all odds to change the field of physics and chemistry forever. Her discoveries led her from a childhood of obscurity to being one of the most well-known scientists of all time. Curie’s father taught Mathematics and Physics as a secondary teacher, and shared his passions and knowledge with his children. These were unusual subjects for girls to study at the time and Curie went on to achieve degrees in both because of her father's influence. Unfortunately, Curie’s family became lost everything when the principal of the school her father worked at, turned him in for being loyal to Poland, which was illegal under the Russian rule. Marie spent the rest of her youth struggling to fund her education. Marie Curie was an extremely intelligent woman who devoted her life to the pursuit of knowledge. She learned to read by the time she was four, “without even trying, it seemed” and soon she could read better than her older. At this young age she dreamed of becoming a scientist, even though such a dream would be difficult in her male dominated society. She received a general education in local schools and scientific training from her father. In 1891, Curie was finally able to continue her studies in the Sorbonne University, in Paris, where she studied and earned the equivalent of a master’s degree in physics and mathematical sciences. Curie continued to further her education throughout her life. One of her greatest accomplishment’s occurred after her husband’s death when she succeeded him as Head of the Physics Laboratory at the Sorbonne. In another moment of success she took her husband’s place as Professor of General Physics in 1906, the first woman to ever be given this position.
Her early researches, together with her husband, were often performed under difficult conditions, laboratory arrangements were poor and both had to undertake much teaching to earn a livelihood. The discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in 1896 inspired the Curies in their brilliant researches and analyses which led to the isolation of polonium, named after the country of Marie's birth, and radium. Curie developed methods for the separation of radium from radioactive residues in sufficient quantities to allow for its characterization and the careful study of its properties, therapeutic properties in particular. Curie throughout her life actively promoted the use of radium to alleviate suffering and during World War I, assisted by her daughter, Irene, she personally devoted herself to this remedial work. She retained her enthusiasm for science throughout her life and did much to establish a radioactivity laboratory in her native city - in 1929 President Hoover of the United States presented her with a gift of $ 50,000, donated by American friends of science, to purchase radium for use in the laboratory in Warsaw. Curie, quiet, dignified and unassuming, was held in high esteem and admiration by scientists throughout the world. She was a member of the Conseil du Physique Solvay from 1911 until her death and since 1922 she had been a member of the Committee of Intellectual Co-operation of the League of Nations. Her work is recorded in numerous papers in scientific journals and she is the author of Recherches sur les Substances Radioactives (1904), L'Isotopie et les Éléments Isotopes and the classic Traité' de Radioactivité (1910).
The importance Curie's work is reflected in the numerous awards bestowed on her. She received many honorary science, medicine and law degrees and honorary memberships of learned societies throughout the world. Together with her husband, she was awarded half of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, for their study into the spontaneous radiation discovered by Becquerel, who was awarded the other half of the Prize. In 1911 she received a second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, in recognition of her work in radioactivity. She also received, jointly with her husband, the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in 1903 and, in 1921, President Harding of the United States, on behalf of the women of America, presented her with one gram of radium in recognition of her service to science. During the First World War made advancements in medicine. She thought X-rays would help locate bullets and assist in surgery, so she contributed her knowledge of radioactivity and invented X-ray vans. Along with this, she trained 150 nurses, making them able to identify these bullets by studying the X-rays.
Without the knowledge of radiation we have now, Curie took no precautions to avoid poisoning. To make matters worse, when she first began her research she had very little funding. Even if she had wanted to take safety precautions, she would not have been able. She did not even have a laboratory to perform her experiments, instead having to content herself “with a shed for their experiments” (Curie 1937, 186). Due to this, her notes, and even her cookbooks from the 1890's, are too radioactive to be handled. Curie died July 4, 1934 from aplastic anemia because of this exposure to radiation. Sadly her passion for science and discovery had resulted in her death. Sixty years later, in 1995, the remains of the couple were transferred to the Panthéon in Paris, out of respect of their achievements. Currie was the first woman to ever receive this honor which cemented her position not just as a scientist, but as a symbol of possibility for women in the future.