Curie, Pierre, and Marie Sklodowska
Curie, Pierre (1859-1906), and Marie Sklodowska (1867-1934), French scientists who did pioneering work in radioactivity and discovered the elements radium and polonium. In 1903 the Curies shared with Antoine Henri Becquerel the Nobel Prize in physics for their studies of radioactivity. In 1911 Madame Curie received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the discovery of radium and polonium. She was the first person to receive two Nobel awards.
Pierre Curie studied at the Sorbonne in his native Paris In 1882 he became director of the laboratory at the School of Physics and Chemistry in Paris. He formulated what became known as Curie's Law, a statement of the effect of temperature changes on magnetism.
Marie Sklodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland, where her father taught physics. She took part in revolutionary activity against Russian rule and had to leave Warsaw. In 1891 she began studies at the Sorbonne, where she met Pierre Curie. They were married in 1895.
After Becquerel discovered the radioactivity of uranium in 1896, the Curies began research in this field. In 1898 they extracted polonium and radium, which are highly radioactive, from pitchblende, an ore that also contains uranium. Polonium was named for Madame Curie's native Poland. Even though poverty hindered their research, the Curies refused to profit from their discoveries. In 1904 Pierre Curie became special professor of physics at the Sorbonne. Two years later he was killed in a street accident.
Madame Curie was appointed to her husband's position, becoming the first woman faculty member at the Sorbonne in its long history. She also became director of the laboratory of the Sorbonne's Institute of Radium. She died of anemia, caused by excessive exposure to radium.
The Curies' elder daughter, Irene, continued her parents' work and shared the 1935 Nobel Prize in chemistry with her husband, Frederic Joliot-Curie.