Marie Curie was born in 1867. She is one of the greatest scientists ever to have lived. She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity and discovered the chemical elements radium and polonium. Curie is the only person ever to win two Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. Other achievements include being the first female professor at the University of Paris.

 

Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland. Her father was a maths and physics teacher and was a big influence on Marie’s early education. From an early age Marie was an exceptional student with an amazing memory. She often went without food and sleep to study. Her brilliant mind led her to Paris to study and conduct her research.

 

She met her future husband Pierre Curie at the university. He considered Marie to be a genius and instantly wanted to work with her. They got married and spent most of their time together in their laboratory studying radioactive materials. Their research led to the discovery of radium, for which they were honoured with the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903.

 

Pierre was killed in 1906 and Marie was devastated and extremely lonely. She threw herself even deeper into her work and won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911. She spent the 1920s raising funds for more research into radium. In 1934 she died from a condition caused by decades of exposure to radiation. No one knew how deadly radium was until years later.