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High Honors, then Tragedy
 hen
the Nobel Prize for Physics
was awarded to Pierre and Marie Curie in 1903, the great honor quickly
changed their lives. Pierre was finally appointed to a professorship at
the Sorbonne, and the university belatedly found funds for a laboratory
for him. It also hired Marie—the first woman to win a Nobel Prize—as
“laboratory chief.”
Read
what Marie wrote here.
(Move
mouse over photos to read captions) |
Pierre
and Marie felt too ill, and too busy, to get to Sweden to deliver the
traditional lecture accepting the Nobel Prize until 1905. The following
spring Pierre was finally feeling more positive about his research. Although
rainy, April 19, 1906, promised to be a productive day for him. After
working in the laboratory in the morning, he was on his way to a library
when he slipped on the wet street and fell in front of a heavy horse-drawn
wagon. It ran over his head, killing him instantly.
Read
what Marie wrote here.
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