Marie Curie - Radioactivity Queen! (ExCred - DTC475)

I really admire one of the most famous and awarded female physicists/chemists, Marie Curie. She performed much research, including being the pioneer of the field of radioactivity. For her accomplishments, she was awarded 2 Nobel Prizes. One of these was for Physics and the other for Chemistry. 2 Nobel Prizes, at that time, was unheard of for a man. Marie was a woman that was the first person to receive 2 Nobels. Despite losing her mother and sister at an early age, Marie (born Maria Sklodowska) struggled to make something of herself throughout her young life.
Marie Curie accomplished in her lifetime what most scientists could only dream or imagine, despite a rocky upbringing. I remember our study of Marie Curie in my high school physics class. I remember how very active and award-winning she was in her time. No other woman at that time had even close the success in the science or technology field as Curie had achieved. All this after she overcame much toil and trouble. Marie's oldest sister died when Marie was only 10 years old, and her mother died when she was a mere 12 years old. She struggled with this, even to the point of giving up her Catholic faith and becoming agnostic.
After more struggles with family misfortunes and a depressing split from would-be husband, Kazimierz Zorawski, she headed to Paris, France. She would proceed with her studies of Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry at the University of Paris. While she was attending the University of Paris, she studied and also tutored. She has to earn her stay at the college. Success started to come her way in 1893, when Marie earned a Physics degree. In 1894, only a year later after her first degree, Marie had earned her Mathematics degree. Both of these degrees came from her attendance and hard studies at the University of Paris. Her soon to be husband, Pierre Curie, had now met Marie just shortly after Marie earned her degrees. Both Pierre and Marie had shown an exuberant interest in the science of magnetism. This common interest drew them together. In 1895, Pierre and Marie married. There was now a loving couple that knew much of the workings of Chemistry and Physics.
Almost everyone that knows the name Marie Curie knows it for the 2 Nobel Prizes awarded to her. Her first Nobel Prize was for Physics and was awarded to her, husband Pierre, and Professor Henri Becquerel in 1903. This Nobel Prize soon made Marie and her husband very famous throughout the world. If being the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize was not enough, she would win her second Nobel Prize in 1911. This time it was for her work in Chemistry; she discovered radium and polonium, and performed tremendous research on radium and radioactivity. Marie Curie would become the very first person in history to win 2 Nobel Prizes for her stunning research and achievement.
Pierre Curie had been killed in 1906 by a horse-drawn carriage. Marie became very depressed over her husband's death. After the death of Pierre, the University of Paris held on to Pierre's position as professor and awarded it to Marie. Marie would now have complete control and say over the labaratory at the University. This new position was also the first of its kind for a woman at the University of Paris. The second Nobel Prize came 5 years later after Marie's new appointment at the Sorbonne.
WWI saw Curie help soldiers with injuries with radium. She knew large amount of information about radium, and came up with radiographic units called "Little Curies". These units contained radium emanation, a gas emitting from radium that helped the wounded soldiers feel better.
Marie Curie died in July 1934, after leaving behind a true legacy in the science world. She had aplastic anemia, which most likely came from prolonged and unguarded exposure to radiation. It is truly ironic that she died from doing something she loved so much and that brought so much to the world. Not only did she develop new ideas in the realms of Chemistry and Physics, but she overcame barriers to women that prevented publication of her very important findings. Marie Curie is a true science icon in history, and the many tributes to her (schools and museums in her name just to mention a couple) show how important a person, a female person, she had become and a woman that would never be forgotten in the history of female achievers.