He was born on this day (7/11) in 1867
Marie Curie is one of the most iconic figures in the world of natural sciences, passionate about all things physics and chemistry and winning two Nobel Prizes for her contributions.
Marie Curie, who was born on this day (7/11) in 1867, became not only the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, but also the first scientist to receive two, while also becoming the first woman to be awarded a chair at the Sorbonne University in 1906, she was to die from her own discovery, radium.
She, of course, helped decisively in the understanding of radioactivity and reinforced with very important medical equipment the hospitals of France in the First World War, as the scandal that "broke out" for an affair with a younger colleague, "tarnished" her course until the end of her life.
The life and career of Marie Curie
Born in 1867 in Warsaw to a schoolteacher mother who died early and a mathematician father, her childhood was shaped by the loss of a brother and her thirst for knowledge.
In 1891, at the age of 24, she moved to Paris to live with her older sister and attend classes at the Sorbonne Ecole des Sciences. Her student years were difficult due to financial problems.
However, she received significant financial support from a Polish foundation, which granted her a scholarship of 600 rubles. A research job that required laboratory infrastructure brought her close to Pierre Curie, with whom she shared love and marriage in June 1895.
In 1898, research led to the discovery of two new radioactive elements: first polonium, named after Marie's hometown, and then radium.
Marie Curie's name was given to a unit of measurement of radioactivity (the curie or Ci) and to the artificial chemical element with atomic number 96 (the curium). In 1906, Pierre Curie was run over by a carriage and died. In 1912, Marie Curie underwent kidney surgery and on July 4, 1933, she died of leukemia.
Her final resting place was next to her husband's in Shaw Cemetery. In 1995, her bones were transferred to the Panthéon, the mausoleum where the "great men" of France rest. Marie Curie is considered by Professor of Medicine Pierre Rego as one of the first victims of radioactivity.
SOURCE: ATHENS MAGAZINE
