Pillar of radiotherapy & first woman to win Nobel

Maria Salomea Sklodowska- Curie, better known as Marie Curie, was born at Warsaw, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire on November 7, 1867. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the only woman to win the Nobel in two different fields.

Working with her husband Pierre Curie, Marie discovered polonium and radium in 1898, and in 1903, won the Nobel Prize for physics, jointly with Henry Becquerel and Pierre Curie for discovering radioactivity. In 1911, she won the Nobel Prize for chemistry, isolating pure radium. She studied radioactive substances and their medical applications following work on X-ray during World War I.

Her contributions to physics and chemistry were immense, not only in her own work, as indicated by her two Nobel Prizes, but also through her impact on subsequent generations of nuclear physicists and chemists. Artificial radioactivity and discovery of neutrons were discovered on the basis of her studies in various fields of science.

Marie, known for exceptional memory since childhood, drew the attention of the world around her at the age of 16 when she won a gold medal on completion of secondary education.

Due to her parent’s financial constraints, Marie had to support her studies by working as a teacher and secretly taking part in nationalist ‘free university’ for reading in Polish to women workers. At the age of 18, she started working as a governess and supported her sister’s studies with expectation of reciprocation at her end later.

Shifting to Paris in 1891, Marie began following lectures of Paul Appell, Gabriel Lippmann and Edmond Bouty at Sorbonne. She bagged prestigious positions in physics and mathematical science while working at Lippmann's Research Laboratory, after which she met her research partner and future husband Pierre, a tutor at the school of physics and chemistry.

They tied the nuptial knot in 1895 that marked the commencement of an association destined to yield results of universal significance, in particular the discovery of polonium (name of element denoted respect for her homeland) in 1898, and that of radium shortly later.

While Pierre devoted himself to the physical study of the new radiations, Marie struggled to obtain pure radium in metallic state, a target achieved with the help of her husband’s pupil Andre Louis Debierne.

On May 13, 1906, she became the first woman to teach in Sorbonne on receiving a post of professorship that fell vacant following Pierre's death. Publication of her fundamental treatise on radioactivity, winning the Nobel Prize in chemistry and completion of the laboratories of the Radium Institute at University of Paris were prominent landmarks in her widowed life.

Ironically, she died of aplastic anaemia caused due to excessive radiation, on July 4, 1934. In 1995, her ashes were enshrined in the Pantheon in Paris as an honour for her achievements.

She was made a member of the Academy of Medicine and the International Commission on Intellectual Cooperation by the Council of the League of Nations in recognition of her achievements. She was also fortunate to witness the development of the Curie Foundation in Paris. Her sister Bronislawa became its director.