Marie was adamant in her refusal, insisting that she was perfectly capable of supporting herself and the children. “Crushed by the blow, I did not feel able to face the future. I could not forget, however, what my husband used to say, that even deprived of him, I ought to continue my work.”
She succeeded her husband as Head of the Physics Laboratory at the Sorbonne, gained her Doctor of Science degree in 1903, and following the tragic death of Pierre Curie in 1906, she took his place as Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences, the first time a woman had held this position.
“Radium,” she said. “Radium?” “Those were her last words— 'Was it done with radium or with mesothorium?
Her fingers were severely burned from carelessly handling radioactive materials with her bare hands as she prepared secondary radium standards. Many of us are familiar with Curie's radiation-induced health problems and the narrative that they resulted from her neglect, or at least her ignorance, of the risks.
Despite those early honors, Marie was still apparently in danger of being excluded from the Nobel Prize until a note from her husband to a nominator ensured her inclusion. Pierre's tragic death ended Marie's days as a collaborator, and today her work is arguably more recognized than her husband's.
The cause of her death was given as aplastic pernicious anaemia, a condition she developed after years of exposure to radiation through her work. She left two daughters, Irene (born 1898) and Eve (born 1904).
While earning her degree in Paris, Curie lived frugally and ate mostly buttered bread and tea—a diet that often caused her to faint from hunger. 3.
Twice Buried. Our favorite two-time Nobel laureate was also buried twice! Madame Curie died of leukemia attributed to her radioactive work, and was buried alongside her husband Pierre in 1934. However, their remains would be re-interred at the Panthéon in 1995 with full honors.
Marie was almost excluded from winning the award, simply because she was a woman. In 1902, a doctor on the Nobel committee named Charles Bouchard had nominated Marie for her work on radioactivity, along with Pierre and Henri Becquerel, but they were passed over that year.
The sudden death of Pierre Curie (April 19, 1906) was a bitter blow to Marie Curie, but it was also a decisive turning point in her career: henceforth she was to devote all her energy to completing alone the scientific work that they had undertaken.
“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.” “Few persons contributed more to the general welfare of mankind and to the advancement of science than the modest, self-effacing woman whom the world knew as Mme. Curie.”
Physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) had cat, dog and parrot and Marie Curie (1867-1934) had a pet tiger.
Pierre Curie was the love of Curie's life and her partner in science. They met in 1894 when Marie Curie worked in Pierre Curie's lab; they were married the following year. [Pierre] had dedicated his life to his dream of science: he felt the need of a companion who could live his dream with him.
On 23 January 1911, Marie Skłodowska Curie was rejected admission to the French Academy of Sciences. Marie Curie applied for the chair in the section of physics left vacant by academician Gernez, and formerly occupied by her husband Pierre Curie. The French Academy of Sciences had so far never admitted a woman.
Although, quite ironically, she helped save a million lives (directly) by using radiation, which has developed drastically in recent times to have saved millions more!
In 1897, her daughter Irène was born. To support her family, Curie began teaching at the École Normale Supérieure.
Red and white, the colour of her native Poland flag.
Marie Curie died in 1934 of leukemia, which was caused by the exposure to the radiation that marked her life's work.
Madame Curie, as she became known, was often praised for more than scientific achievement: “an exceedingly attractive woman, a delicate blonde with fair, blue eyes,” burbled one New York Times profile from 1903. A few months later she won her first Nobel Prize (in Physics, shared with Henri Becquerel and her husband).
Her Madame Curie was young, thin, and beautiful, but did not wear glasses. The real Marie Curie did.
“Marie Curie's decades of exposure left her chronically ill and nearly blind from cataracts, and ultimately caused her death at 67, in 1934, from either severe anemia or leukemia,” wrote Denis Grady for The New York Times. “But she never fully acknowledged that her work had ruined her health.”
During the first World War, Marie Curie went to work for the French building and designing X-ray machines. Knowing that moving soldiers to a hospital before they needed surgery was not always possible, she designed the first mobile X-ray machine and traveled with it along the front lines during the war.
A Remarkable Woman. Born in Warsaw, in the Russian par on of Poland, on No-vember 7, 1867 to a school principal mother and teacher fa-ther, Maria Skłodowska was one of 5 children. She was an excellent student who loved physics, chemistry, math, biol-ogy and music. She spoke Polish, Russian, French and Eng-lish.
She worked as a private tutor for children in Poland before moving to Paris, France at the age of 24 to study mathematics and physics at the Sorbonne. Her goal was to get a teacher's diploma and return to Poland.