Five reasons Marie Curie was a science hero

Marie Curie was a physicist and chemist born in 1867 who continues to inspire researchers today. She opened doors to female physics researchers worldwide and made multiple groundbreaking scientific breakthroughs. Here are five reasons why we think Marie Curie is a science hero.  

1. She pursued higher education at a time when it wasn’t allowed for women

Marie Curie, née Sklowdowska, was born in the city of Warsaw just four years after the ruling Russian Empire banned women from attending university.

Marie and her older sister, Bronya, defied the ban by attending a rogue underground night school called Flying University. The two sisters made a pact: they would take turns pursuing higher education in France while the other sister worked to support the pair. Bronya went abroad first and completed medical school while Marie worked as a tutor and governess.

In 1891, it was Marie’s turn to study. She enrolled at Sorbonne, part of the University of Paris, where she specialized in physics and mathematics. She would eventually go on to earn a PhD in 1903, becoming the first woman in France to do so.

2. She discovered radiation emitted from atoms

While enrolled at Sorbonne, Marie met her husband, Pierre Curie, a French physicist and chemist. Following their marriage, Marie dove into her doctoral thesis work. She decided to follow the work of Henri Becquerel, a French physicist who had discovered that uranium salts spontaneously produced rays that would leave silhouettes on photographic plates – like the X-rays recently uncovered by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895.  

Marie’s experiments led her to correctly determine that an element’s ability to produce these spontaneous rays was due to the internal structure of atoms, not their arrangement at the molecular level. Curie dubbed the phenomenon ‘radioactivity.’

3. She discovered two new elements and isolated pure radium, winning two Nobel Prizes for her work

Marie Curie is the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and remains the only person to have won two Nobels in different scientific categories.

Her first prize was awarded for her work with her husband in radioactivity and was jointly awarded to Henri Becquerel.

During this time, the Curies also discovered two new elements: radium and polonium. Sadly, Pierre Curie was killed in 1906 when he was struck by a horse-drawn carriage. Marie continued her experiments without him.

In 1910, Marie achieved another breakthrough by isolating pure radium. This feat earned her a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. While five people in history have won multiple Nobel Prizes, she remains the only one to have won in two different scientific categories.

4. She provided life-saving X-ray services in World War I  

During World War I, Marie used her scientific know-how to help save soldiers’ lives. Recognizing the importance of X-rays in diagnosing and treating injuries, Marie became the Director of France’s Red Cross Radiology Service. She then commissioned vehicles to be outfitted as mobile radiology units – bringing X-ray technology directly to the battle front. She herself drove one of the vehicles with her 17-year-old daughter by her side. Her life-saving vehicles were nicknamed ‘petite Curies’ by soldiers.  

5. She supported scientific research and education  

Marie founded not one but two Curie Institutes: one in Paris in 1920 and the second in Warsaw in 1932. She also sat on the League of Nations’ International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation until 1934, working for a time alongside famed physicist Albert Einstein to enable cooperation between international experts.

Marie died in 1934 from illness related to her long-term research on radioactive materials. Her and her late husband Pierre are interred in lead-lined coffins at the Paris Panthéon due to their longtime exposure to radioactive materials. Even her research papers and cookbooks are considered too dangerous to handle and are kept in lead-lined containers. Anyone who wants to handle them must wear protective equipment.

Marie Curie changed the world. Are you as inspired by her as we are? Check out this downloadable poster of her, as well as posters of other brilliant female scientists in our Forces of Nature series.