Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie, known as Marie Curie, was a Polish-born French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. Marie Curie was born on November 7, 1867 and died on July 4, 1934 due to exposure to radioactivity. Marie Curie is famously known for her discovery of radium and polonium, and her huge contribution to finding cancer treatments. This discovery is very important because radium destroys diseased cells faster than healthy cells so this can be used to treat tumors. She worked with her husband Pierre Curie who was also a physicist and chemist. Tragically, Pierre died at only the age of 46 due to being hit by a horse-drawn vehicle. Marie later took his place as Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences which was a position that was not held by women at this time. Marie is responsible for saving an estimated million soldiers in WWI using the electromagnetic radiation of X-rays. Nurses needed a way to bring the machines to the hurt soldiers. In response to this, Marie and her daughter gathered a bunch of vehicles that contain X-ray machines to transport to the battlefield. They also placed 200 more permanent radio logical units at posts near the beginning of the war. Because of these contributions, the X-rays help doctors see the bullets, broken bones, and shrapnel better to treat it more effectively.

Irène Joliot-Curie, Marie Curie’s daughter, was a physicist and chemist just like her mother. She won Nobel Prize prizes with her husband for their work. She is known for creating the first artificially created radioactive atom. Marie Curie was the first person to win 2 Nobel Prizes and the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. In total, the Curie family acquired a total of 5 Nobel Prizes. Where Marie grew up, women were not allowed to have a higher education. She and Bronia, her sister, educated themselves secretly at the Flying University which was a secret university that met at night and underground to avoid getting caught. Marie’s notebooks are safely stored until this day in France because they are still contaminated with radium. Her notebooks will still be radioactive for another 1,5oo years since radium has a half-life of 1,600 years.