Marie and Pierre Curie are among the most famous scientific couples in history. Their discoveries relating to radiation were key in the subsequent development of practical uses of radiation, such as nuclear energy and x-rays. Their discoveries won them multiple Nobel prizes and international recognition as leaders is physics and chemistry.
Marie Curie was born Marie Sklodowska in Poland in 1867. Poland at that time was under the control of the Russian czars, so although she did very well in high school, she was not admitted to a regular university. She therefore attended an illegal, underground university while working as a tutor to support her sister while she studied in Paris to be a doctor. Eventually, she saved up enough money to allow her to study in Paris as well. In completing not only an undergraduate and a master's degree, but a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Paris, she became the first woman in France to earn a doctorate.
While at the University of Paris, she met a teacher there named Pierre Curie. They shared many of the same scientific interests and were married. This was the beginning of an important scientific partnership. Over the next several years, the Curies studied radioactivity in great detail. In particular, they were the first to use the term "radioactivity" and the first to isolate the elements radium and polonium. Before meeting Marie, Pierre had already made the first discovery of nuclear energy.
For their efforts, the Curies were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. They refrained from patenting the process they had invented for isolating radium so that the scientific community could build on their findings unhindered. In 1906, Pierre was run over by a horse drawn carriage and killed. After his death, Marie took Pierre's position as professor of physics at the University of Paris. In so doing, she became the first female professor the university had ever had.
In 1911, Marie was awarded another Nobel Prize, this one in Chemistry, for the work she had done with Pierre. Pierre would have shared the prize if he had still been alive. This second prize made Curie the only woman in history who has even won two Nobel prizes, the only person to have ever won a Nobel prize for two different scientific fields, and one of only two people to have one two Nobel prizes in different categories. She continued researching and teaching until she died of leukemia (the consequences of her studies with radiation) in 1934. A year later, her daughter, Irene-Joliot-Curie won her own Nobel prize for Chemistry.
