Marie Curie

Marie Curie(November 7, 1867- July 4, 1934) was born as Marie Sklodwska. She was a physicist and a chemist, brought up in Poland and had French citizenship. She was one of the first to work in the field of radioactivity. She was the only person to win two Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. She also was the first female proffessor at the University of Paris. Marie was born in Warsaw, Congress Poland in the Russian Empire. She lived there until she was the age of 24. In 1891, she went to study in Paris just like her older sister. There she obtained her science degrees and began her work. She founded the Curie Insitutes in Warsaw and Paris. She was the wife of Nobel Prize winner Pierre Curie and the mother of Nobel Prize winner Irene Joliot-Curie. Marie won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. She won this award with her husband, Pierre Curie. They tied with Antoine Henri Becquerel. Becquerel won "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity." The Curie family won "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel." Pierre and Marie also won the Davy Medal in 1903. The Davy Medal is awarded each year by London's Royal Society. Those who win this award recieve for an outstanding discovery that year in any branch of chemistry. With the medal, reciptants also recieve GB__£__1,000. Marie and Pierre won the Mattueccini Medal in 1904. The Italian Society of Sciences established this with a donation from Carlo Mattueccini. The Mattueccini Medal is given to phyisicists who contribute to the field of physics. Marie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. This year she herself won the award "for her discovery of radium and polonium." Though she was a loyal French citizen, she never denounced her Polish identity. She named her first found chemical element, polonium, after her Poland. She also found a Radium Insitute in her hometown, Warsaw.