Her Stem Space

After arriving in Paris in 1891, she met amazing scientists such as Paul Appell and Gabriel Lippmann. She was a bright student who placed first in the physical sciences in 1893 and second in the mathematical services in 1894, despite living simply on bread, butter, and tea. The following year, she researched in Lippmann’s lab, and there she met Pierre Curie in the spring of 1894. After being married in 1895, Marie and Pierre made groundbreaking research and discoveries in the field of radiation. They discovered polonium and radium, which were motivated by the research of Henri Becquerel. These elements were isolated as a result of their study on pitchblende. Together with their physics Nobel Prize, Marie’s doctoral thesis from 1903 recognized their impactful contributions to science. Marie Curie gave birth to two daughters in 1897 and 1904, which didn’t stop her contributions to science. She started teaching physics in 1900 at the École Normale Supérieure for girls in Sèrves, where she also pioneered experimental teaching methods.

After Pierre Curie’s death in 1906, Marie Curie gave her whole attention to her scientific endeavors. After becoming the Sorbonne’s first female professor in 1906, she won the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 1911 for isolating radium. In addition to her outstanding achievements, she invented X-rays for injured soldiers during WWI. As a result of her work at the Raduym Institute, nuclear science and medicine benefited her reputation, which gave her a place in the Academy of Medicine in 1922. President Harding gave Marie Curie a gram of radium on her visit to the US in 1921. She gave global lectures, was a member of the International Commission on Intellectual Co-operation, and was present when the Radium Institute and the Curie Foundation were established in Warsaw. In addition to encouraging her daughters, Irène Curie and Frédéric Joliot-Curie, to conduct ground-breaking experiments that resulted in the discovery of artificial radioactivity, Curie stressed the use of radioactive sources for study and medicine. Unfortunately, she passed away in 1934 due to radiation contamination before this discovery was made. Her office and laboratory are preserved in the Curie Museum and are inducted into the Pantheon, and she has been awarded two Nobel Prizes.