Marie Curie

Biography

Abstract

Marie Curie was a noted chemist and physicist at the Paris-Sorbonne University. She was awarded two Nobel Prizes. The 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Henri Becquerel and her husband Pierre Curie "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel." She was also awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element". She is the only woman to have received two Nobel prizes.

Important Dates

November 7, 1867Birth, Warsaw (Poland).

1903Obtained PhD in Physics, Paris-Sorbonne University (Université de Paris), Paris (France).

1903Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics along with Henri Becquerel and her husband Pierre Curie "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel".

1903Awarded the Davy Medal along with her husband Pierre Curie, Royal Society.

1904Awarded Matteucci Medal.

1904Wrote "Recherches sur les Substances Radioactives".

1904 – 1914Chief Assistant Physics Laboratory (1904-1906); Professor General Physics (1906-1908); Titular Professor of Physics (1908-1914); and Director, Curie Laboratory (1914), Paris-Sorbonne University (Université de Paris), Paris (France).

1907Awarded the Actonian Prize.

1909Awarded Elliott Cresson Medal.

1910Wrote "L'Isotopie et les Éléments Isotopes and the classic Traité de Radioactivité".

1911Awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element".

1921Awarded Ellan Richards Prize.

1921Awarded Franklin Medal, American Philosophical Society.

1922Member, International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation.

1923Awarded Grand Priz du Marquis d’Argenteuil Award.

1930 – 1934Member, International Atomic Weights Committee.

1931Awarded Cameron Prize, Edinburgh University.

July 4, 1934Death, Sallanches (France).

1995Ashes moved to Pantheon, Paris (France).

Occupation

Nuclear physicist and chemist.

Places

Birth

Warsaw (Poland)

Graduate Education

Paris (France)

Employment

Paris (France)

Death

Sallanches (France)

Subjects

Chemical elements.

Medical physics.

Nuclear physics.

Radiation -- Testing.

Radioactivity.

X-rays.

Relationships

People

Family

Curie, Pierre, 1859-1906

Husband. Awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Becquerel "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."

Joliot-Curie, Frédéric

Son-in-law, married to daughter Irene.

Joliot-Curie, Irène

Daughter. Advised by Curie at Paris-Sorbonne University (Université de Paris).

Langevin-Joliot, Helene, 1927-

Granddaughter.

Skłodowska, Bronislawa

Mother.

Skłodowska, Bronya

Sister.

Skłodowski, Vladislav

Father.

Advisors & Collaborators

Bauer, Edmond

Advised by Curie at University of Paris (Université de Paris).

Becquerel, Henri, 1852-1908

Awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics along with P. Curie "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."

Cotton, Eugénie

Advised by Curie at University of Paris (Université de Paris).

Gentner, Wolfgang, 1906-1980

Advised by Curie at University of Paris (Université de Paris).

Goldstein, Ladislas

Advised by Curie at Curie's laboratory (Radium Institute).

Hall, Norris F. (Norris Folger), 1891-1962

Advised by Curie as a post-doc in Paris.

Henriot, Emile, 1885-1961

Advised by Curie at Paris-Sorbonne University (Université de Paris).

Lind, Samuel C. (Samuel Colville), 1879-1965

Advised by Curie as a Research Scientist in 1910.

Lippmann, M. (Gabriel), 1845-1921

PhD advisor at Paris-Sorbonne University (Université de Paris).

Mitra, Sisir Kumar, 1890-1963

Advised by Curie at the Curie Institute (Institut Curie).

Perrin, Francis

Advised by Curie at University of Paris (Université de Paris).

Shi, Shiyuan

Advised by Curie at University of Paris (Université de Paris).

Additional

Armstrong, Alice H.

Boudia, Soraya

Brillouin, Marcel Louis

Cady, Walter G. (Walter Guyton), 1874-1974

Claude, Georges

Compton, Betty Charity McCloskey, 1916-

Compton, K. T. (Karl Taylor), 1887-1954

Coolidge, William David, 1873-1975

Cotton, Aimé Auguste, 1869-1951

Duane, William, 1872-1935

Ewald, Paul Peter, 1888-1985

Fröman, Nanny

Gamow, George, 1904-1968

Grosse, Aristid von, 1905-1985

Hansen, W. W. (William Webster), 1909-1949

Hevesy, Georg von, 1885-1966

Jaffé, George Cecil

Kabzińska, Krystyna

Kaufman, William

Kellogg, Charlotte

Kellogg, Vernon L. (Vernon Lyman), 1867-1937

Korn, Elizabeth P.

Kovarik, A. F. (Alois Francis), 1880-1965

Kunz, George Frederick

Lockwood, Stephen T.

Loeb, Leonard B. (Leonard Benedict), 1891-

Marx, Erich Anselm

Meloney, William Brown

Nix, Foster Cary, 1905-

Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey

Pasachoff, Naomi E.

Pegram, George Braxton, 1876-1958

Perrin, Jean, 1870-1942

Pestre, Dominique

Pflaum, Rosalynd

Planck, Max, 1858-1947

Radvanyi, P. (Pierre)

Richardson, O. W. (Owen Willans), 1879-1959

Rutherford, Ernest, 1871-1937

Sheean, Vincent, 1899-1975

Smoluchowski, Marian, 1872-1917

Thomson, J. J. (Joseph John), 1856-1940

Wertenstein, Ludwik, 1887-1945

Wolkowski, Z. W. (Zbigniew William)

Yalow, Rosalyn S. (Rosalyn Sussman), 1921-2011

Institutions

Major Positions

Institut Curie

Founder.

Universite de Paris IV: Paris-Sorbonne

Obtained PhD in Physics (1903). Chief Assistant; Professor General Physics; Titular Professor of Physics; and Director, Curie Laboratory.

Professional Activities & Affiliations

American Philosophical Society

Awarded 1921 Franklin Medal.

International Education Board

Royal Society (Great Britain)

Awarded 1903 Davy Medal along with her husband, Pierre.

University of Edinburgh

Awarded 1931 Cameron Prize.

Resources

Archival Resources

Author

International Education Board records, 1923-1960.

Rockefeller Archive Center

15 Dayton Ave., Pocantico Hills, North Tarrytown, NY 10591-1598, USA

Marie Curie calibration certificate, 1929.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Marie Curie correspondence, 1881-1934.

Muzeum Marii Sklodowskiej-Curie

Warsaw, Poland

Marie Curie holograph manuscript, 1932.

Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine

Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine

183 Fuston Rd., London NW1 2BN, England UK

Marie Curie letter to Ruth Halstead, 1923.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Marie Curie memorabilia and correspondence with Charlotte Kellogg, 1921-1929.

The Joseph Regenstein Library. Department of Special Collections

University of Chicago

1100 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

Marie Curie notebook, 1899-1902.

Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine

Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine

183 Fuston Rd., London NW1 2BN, England UK

Marie Curie papers, 1867-1906.

Départment des manuscrits

Bibliothèque nationale

Paris, France

Marie Curie papers, 1906-1934.

Institut Curie

26 rue d'Ulm, 75231, Paris, France

Subject

Aime Auguste Cotton papers, 1895-1951.

Department of Physics, Library

Ecole normale supérieure.

24, rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris CEDEX 05, France

Alois Francis Kovarik papers, 1902-1951.

Manuscripts and Archives

Yale University Library

Box 208240, New Haven, CT 06520, USA

Contributions of 20th century women to physics [online resource], 1900-1976.

University Research Library. Department of Special Collections

University of California, Los Angeles

Los Angeles, CA 90024-1575, USA

Curie and Joliot-Curie Archives, 1914-1958.

Association Frederic et Irene Joliot-Curie

11 rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 75231 Paris CEDEX 05

Elizabeth P. Korn sketches, 1928-1940s.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Erich A. Marx papers, 1905-1913.

Folsom Library. Institute Archives and Special Collections

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Troy, NY 12180, USA

Ernest Rutherford correspondence [microform], 1906-1937.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Family files, 1899-1946.

Archiwum (Warszawa)

Polska Akademia Nauk

Nowy Świat 72, 00-330 Warsaw, Poland

Files of Ludwik Wertenstein, 1908-1944.

Archiwum (Warszawa)

Polska Akademia Nauk

Nowy Świat 72, 00-330 Warsaw, Poland

Georg von Hevesy lectures, 1962.

Cavendish Laboratory

Cambridge, England

Georg von Hevesy scientific correspondence, 1910-1966.

Niels Bohr Archive

Blegdamsvej 17, Copenhagen, Denmark

George C. Jaffé papers, 1902-1962.

The Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, CA, 94720-6000, USA

George Frederick Kunz correspondence, 1919-1922.

Library. Malloch Rare Book and History of Medicine Room

New York Academy of Medicine

2 East 103rd Street, New York, NY 10029, USA

George von Hevesy lectures [microform], 1962.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Georges Claude papers.

In private hands

contact: Robert Boizard 33, avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris, France

How it came about, circa 1963.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Leon J. Winand response to 1981 History of Nuclear Physics Survey, 1982.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Marcel Brillouin papers, 1887-1943.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Marian Smoluchowski personal archives, 1890-1917.

Dept. of Manuscripts

Biblioteka Jagiellonska.

A. Mickiewicza 22, 30-059 Cracow

Marie Curie - A 150th Birthday Celebration [sound recording], 2017 March 16.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

O. W. Richardson papers, 1897-1959 (bulk 1920-1940).

Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center

University of Texas at Austin

P.O. Drawer 7219, Austin, TX 78713-7219, USA

Oral history interview with Alice Armstrong, 1979 June 11.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Aristid Victor Grosse, 1974 January 11 and April 5.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Betty Compton, 1968 April 11 and 15.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Foster Cary Nix, 1975 June 27.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Georg von Hevesy, 1962 May 25 and 4 February 1963.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with George Gamow, 1968 April 25 and 26.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Helene Langevin-Joliot, 2003 April 13.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Léon Brillouin, 1962 March 29 and 3 April.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Leonard B. Loeb, 1962 August 7.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Paul Peter Ewald, 1968 May 17 and 24.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Walter Guyton Cady, 1963 August 28 and 29.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Pierre Curie papers, 1891-1906.

Départment des manuscrits

Bibliothèque nationale

Paris, France

Radioactive: [videorecording] the story of Marie Curie.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Sir J. J. Thomson papers and correspondence, 1836-1956.

Library

Trinity College

cambridge CB2 1TQ

Stephen T. Lockwood, c.1874-1971 letters, 1902-1938.

Research Library, Archives

Buffalo Museum of Science

Humbolt Parkway, Buffalo, NY 14211, USA

The Hartman Radium Collection, 1918-1977.

Archives

Holy Family College

Grant and Frankford Avenues, Philadelphia, PA, USA

The pioneer years of atomic science [sound recording]: a lecture given at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1972 October 17.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

W. W. Hansen miscellaneous materials, 1899-1931.

Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine

Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine

183 Fuston Rd., London NW1 2BN, England UK

William B. Meloney collection on Marie Curie, 1920-1943.

Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Columbia University

Butler Library, 6th Floor East, New York, NY 10027, USA

William D. Coolidge autobiographical notes, circa 1962.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

William Duane correspondence with K. T. Compton, Marie and Pierre Curie, Max Planck, Ernest Rutherford, and J. J. Thomson, 1905-1933.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Published Resources

Author

Correspondance; choix de lettres, 1905-1934 [de] Marie [et] Irène Curie. Présentation par Gillette Ziegler.

Le radium: Célébration du vingt-cinquième anniversaire de sa découverte (1898-1923)/ La Fondation Curie.

Les progrès de la physique moléculaire: conférences faites en 1913-1914/ par Mme. P. Curie ... [et al.].

Les rayons a, B, y des corps radioactifs en relation avec la structure nucléaire/ par madame Pierre Curie.

L'isotopie et les éléments isotopes

Pierre Curie/ by Marie Curie, translated by Charlotte and Vernon Kellogg, with an introduction by Mrs. William Brown Meloney, and autobiographical notes by Marie Curie.

Prace/ zebrane przez Irené Joliot-Curie; [wyd. 1. W 20 rocznicę zgonu].

Radio-active substances

Radioactivité

Recherches sur les substances radioactives/ par Mme. Sklodowska Curie.

Theses presentees a la Faculte des Science de Paris pour obtenir le grade de docteur es sciences physiques/ Mme. Sklodowski Curie.

Untersuchungen über die radioaktiven substanzen/ von mme. S. Curie. Übersetzt und mit litteratur-ergänzungen versehen von W. Kaufmann. Mit eingedruckten abbildungen.

Subject

Encyclopaedia Britannica - Marie Curie

Grand obsession: Madame Curie and her world/ Rosalynd Pflaum.

Korespondencja Polska Marii Sklodowskiej-Curie 1881-1934/ opracowanie, Krystyna Kabzińska ... [et al.].

Les Curie: pionniers de l'atome/ Pierre Radvanyi.

Madame Curie: a biography by Eve Curie/ Translated by Vincent Sheean.

Marie Curie and the science of radioactivity/ Naomi Pasachoff.

Marie Curie et le Nobel/ Karin Blanc; préface de Nanny Fröman.

Marie Curie et son laboratoire: sciences et industrie de la radioactivité en France/ Soraya Boudia; préf de Dominique Pestre.

Marie Curie Nobel Prize biography.

Marie Curie y la radioactividad= Marie Curie and the radioactivity/ José Manuel Sánchez Ron; [traducción, María Luisa Rodríguez Tapia].

Marie Curie/ [by] Robert Reid.

Marie Curie: a biography/ Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie.

Marie Curie: a life/ Susan Quinn.

Marie Curie's family: the spirit and the letter: a chirographic and semiotic study/ Wolkowski, Z.W.

Obsessive genius: the inner world of Marie Curie/ Barbara Goldsmith.

Pierre et Marie Curie. Paris, 1967. [Octobre-décembre. Catalogue par Marie-Louise Concasty. Préface par Étienne Dennery.].

Radioactive : Marie & Pierre Curie, a tale of love and fallout / by Lauren Redniss.