Marie Curie the Scientist - History, Nobel Prizes, Achievements & Facts

History of Marie Curie

    Polish-French Physicist Maria Salomea Sklodowska commonly known by French version of her name “Marie Curie” was a Polish (Poland was part of Russian Empire at that time) by birth. She was born into the family of a secondary-school teacher on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland. After completing her early education in Warsaw, she relocated to France (Paris) in 1891 to continue her studies at the Sarbonne

    She earned Licentiateships (at Sarbonne) in Physics and Mathematics. In 1894, she met her future life partner, Pierre Currie, a Professor in the School of Physics. She later married Pierre in 1895 and completed her degree as a Doctor of Science in 1903. Her husband Pierre Curie died in a tragic incident (caused by a street accident). Marie joined the University as a Professor of Physics.

Marie Curie’s 1^st Nobel Prize – Physics Nobel prize winner 1903

    Marie Curie won her first noble prize for her momentous work in the Physics domain. She was the co-winner of the prize. The other two were her husband, Pierre Curie, and Henri Bacquerrel. She and her husband shared the Nobel Prize for their work on radiation phenomena (alongwith Henri Bacquerrel who discovered spontaneous radiation).

    Marie Curie, alongwith her husband, worked on the Phenomena by extracting Uranium from ore and found that the remaining part of the ore exhibited more activity than the pure Uranium, leading them to the conclusion that the ore carried some other radioactive elements. They discovered these elements to be Polonium and Radium. Marie herself coined the phrase "Radioactivity". According to her research, the activity of rays was dependent on uranium’s atomic structure and not on its form. The couple spent their time on Pitchblende, a crystallized form of Uranium oxide.

Marie Curie’s 2^nd Nobel Prize – Chemistry Nobel prize winner 1911

    The 2^nd Noble prize was presented to her in recognition of the discovery of Radium and Polonium (radioactive elements). Polonium was named after Madame Curie’s country of birth, “Poland”. She also worked on the isolation of Radium and studied the nature & compounds of these amazing elements. She produced Radium as pure metal in 1910, which led to the end of any doubts about the existence of the element.

What did Marie Curie discover?        They discovered Polonium and Radium by accident in 1898 while looking for uranium ore. They saw that the Uranium’s pitchblende was more radioactive than the Uranium separated from it. Conclusively, they discovered Polonium and Radium.

    Radium is now used in certain applications, such as industrial radiography, while being replaced in other fields by some other elements. Polonium, on the other hand, is used in antistatic devices and for research.

    Due to her enthusiasm for science and research, Madame Curie was connected to Science throughout her life. She died on July 4, 1934 at the age of 66. Despite her neutralization to France during her student life, Madame Curie kept connected her daughters with her mother tongue i.e. Polish and kept visiting Poland many times later in her life.

 

Crucks and interesting facts about Marie Curie’s life

Marie Curie is known to this day for her following achievements :-

        Pioneering research on Radioactivity.

        Discovering Polonium and Radium.

Two Nobel Prizes of Marie Curie. She was the first person among two-time Nobel Prize winners.

She is the only person to win two Nobel Prizes in scientific fields.

She was the 1^st female Professor at Sarbonne University.

Marie died because of Aplastic Pernicious Anaemia, which developed due to exposure to radioactive elements for a long period of time.

What did Marie Curie discovered?

        Radium was discovered by Marie Curie and Pierre Curie.

        Polonium was discovered by Marie Curie and Pierre Curie.