Maria Skłodowska Curie

Marie Skodowska Curie November 7 1867 ndash July 4 1934 was a physicist and chemist of Polish upbringing and subsequently French citizenship. She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes and the first female professor at the University of Paris. She was born Maria Skodowska in Warsaw then Vistula Country Russian Empire now Poland and lived there until she was 24. In 1891 she followed her elder sister Bronisawa to study in Paris where she obtained her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and Warsaw. Her husband Pierre Curie was a Nobel colaureate of hers and her daughter Iregravene JoliotCurie and soninlaw Freacutedeacuteric JoliotCurie also received Nobel prizes. Her achievements include the creation of a theory of radioactivity a term coined by her techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes and the discovery of two new elements polonium and radium. It was also under her personal direction that the worlds first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms quotcancersquot using radioactive isotopes. While an actively loyal French citizen she never lost her sense of Polish identity. She named the first new chemical element that she discovered 1898 quotpoloniumquot for her native countryand in 1932 she founded a Radium Institute now the Maria SkodowskandashCurie Institute of Oncology in her home town Warsaw headed by her physiciansister Bronisawa. From Wikipedia.org