Marie Curie

Marie Curie (1867-1934) was a Polish-born physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity — a word she coined. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only woman to win in two scientific fields (Physics 1903, Chemistry 1911), and the only person ever to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. With her husband Pierre Curie, Marie discovered two new radioactive elements: polonium (named after her homeland Poland) and radium. Her research into the nature of radioactivity laid the foundation for nuclear physics and cancer treatment. Curie worked in an era of profound discrimination against women in science. She was denied admission to Polish universities because of her gender, was never elected to the French Academy of Sciences (despite two Nobel Prizes), and received less credit than her husband for their joint work. Curie died in 1934 of aplastic anemia, caused by decades of radiation exposure. Her notebooks are still radioactive and kept in lead-lined boxes. To read them, visitors must sign a liability waiver.