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{{Otheruses4|the chemist and physicist|the school named after her|École élémentaire Marie-Curie}} {{Otheruses4|the chemist and physicist|the school named after her|École élémentaire Marie-Curie}}
{{redirect|Madame Curie|the biographical film about her|Madame Curie (film)}}
<!-- Note: Please do not change the nationality from Polish French without consulting the discussion page. This formulation has been found to be the best way to reflect Curie's strong connections to both of these countries -->

{{Infobox_Scientist
| name = Maria Skłodowska-Curie
| image = Mariecurie.jpg|200px
| image_width = 200px
| caption = Maria Skłodowska-Curie.
| birth_date = {{birth date|1867|11|7|mf=y}}
| birth_place = ], ]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1934|7|4|1867|11|7}}
| death_place = ], ]
| residence =
| citizenship =
| nationality = ], ]
<!-- please check http://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_style/Archive_66 before (re)adding flagicons to the above -->
| ethnicity =
| field = ] and ]
| work_institution = ]
| alma_mater = ] and ]
| doctoral_advisor = ]
| doctoral_students = ]</br><!--]</br>-->]
| known_for = ]
| author_abbreviation_bot =
| author_abbreviation_zoo =
| prizes = ] ] (1903)</br><!--] (1903)</br>] (1904)</br>-->] ] (1911)
| footnotes = The only person to win two ]s in different ''science'' fields. Married ] (1895); their children were ] and ].}}

'''Maria Skłodowska-Curie''' (born '''Maria Skłodowska'''; ], ] &ndash; ] ]) was a ] and ] of ] upbringing and, subsequently, ] citizenship. She was a pioneer in the field of ], the first twice-honored ] (and still the only one in two different sciences) and the first female professor at the ].

She was born in ], ], ], and lived there until she was 24. In 1891 she followed her elder sister to study in ], ], where she obtained her higher degrees and conducted her scientific work. She founded the ]s in Paris and Warsaw. She was the wife of fellow-Nobel-laureate ] and the mother of a third Nobel laureate, ].

While an actively loyal French citizen, she never lost her sense of Polish identity and named the first ] that she discovered ] for her native country.

==Life==
]'s "]."]]

Maria Salomea Skłodowska was born in ] to ], Bronisława and Władysław Skłodowski, both of whom were teachers and instilled in their children a sense of the value of learning.

Maria was the youngest of five children: Zofia (born 1862), Józef (1863), Bronisława (1865), Helena (1866) and finally Maria (1867).

Maria's early years were marked by the death of her sister Helena (from ]) and, two years later, the death of her mother (]).
These events caused her to give up her Roman Catholic religion and become an ].<ref>{{Cite book
| last = Reid
| first = Robert William
| title = Marie Curie
| year = 1974
| location = London
| publisher = Collins
| pages = page 19
| isbn = 0-00-211539-5
}} "Unusually at such an early age, she became what T. H. Huxley had just invented a word for: agnostic."
</ref>

In her youth Skłodowska showed an exceptional memory and diligent ], and was known to neglect food and even sleep in order to study. At age fifteen she graduated from ] at the top of her class. <ref name="mhlanas.de">{{Cite web|url=http://www.mlahanas.de/Physics/Bios/MarieCurie.html|title=Marie Curie|accessdate=2007-04-12}}</ref>
]'', near ]'s ]. At a lab here, Maria Skłodowska did her first scientific work (1890-91).]]
Because she was female, and because of ]n reprisals following the Polish ] against ], Skłodowska was denied admission to a regular university. She worked several years as a private tutor while attending ]'s illegal ] and helped support her elder sister Bronisława, who was studying medicine in ]. Eventually in 1891, having saved up money earned as a ], Maria went to join her elder sister in ].

Skłodowska studied ], ] and ] at the ]. (Later, in 1909, she would become the Sorbonne's first female professor, when she was named to her late husband's chair in physics, which he had held for only a year and a half before his tragic death). In early 1893 she graduated first in her undergraduate class. A year later, also at the Sorbonne, she obtained her ] in mathematics. In 1903, under the supervision of ], she received her ] from '']'' ('']''), becoming the first woman in France to complete a doctorate.

At the Sorbonne, she met and married fellow-instructor ]. Skłodowska had begun her scientific career in Paris with an investigation of the magnetic properties of various steels; it was their mutual interest in ] that had drawn Skłodowska and Curie together.
] and Marie Curie in their Paris lab before 1907 (he died in 1906).]]
Eventually they studied ] materials, particularly ] — the ] from which ] was extracted — which had the curious property of being more radioactive than the uranium extracted from it. By 1898 they had deduced that pitchblende must contain traces of an unknown substance far more radioactive than uranium. On ], ], Skłodowska-Curie announced the existence of this substance.

Over the course of several years' unceasing work in the most difficult physical conditions, they processed several tons of ], progressively concentrating the radioactive substances and eventually isolating the chloride salts (refining ] on ], ]) and identifying two previously unknown ]s. The first, they named ], in honor of Skłodowska-Curie's native country, Poland, then still partitioned among three empires; and the other, ], for its intense ] — a word that she coined.
] diplomas.]]

In 1903, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded ], Marie Curie, and ] the ], "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the ] phenomena discovered by Professor ]."

Curie was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize. Eight years later, she received the 1911 ], "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".

In an unusual decision, Skłodowska-Curie intentionally refrained from ]ing the radium-isolation process, leaving it open so that the scientific community could do research unhindered.

A month after accepting her 1911 Nobel Prize, she was hospitalized with depression and a kidney ailment.

Skłodowska-Curie was the first person to win or share ''two'' Nobel Prizes. She is one of only two people who have been awarded a ] in two different fields, the other being ] (Chemistry, Peace). She remains the only woman to have won two Nobel Prizes, and the only person to have won Nobel Prizes in two different '']'' fields. Nevertheless, the ] refused to abandon its prejudice against women, and she failed by one vote to be elected to membership. (Pierre had been elected to the Academy in 1905.)

], hereditary in Skłodowska's family.]]

Pierre had, on ], ], been killed in a street accident as he was walking to his Paris laboratory; he was struck by a horse-drawn vehicle and fell under its wheels, fracturing his skull. While it has been speculated that he may previously have been weakened by prolonged radiation exposure, it has not been proven that this was the cause of the accident. Marie was devastated by her husband's death and may subsequently have had an affair with physicist ] {{Fact|date=September 2007}} — a married man who had left his wife — which resulted in a press scandal, exploited by her academic opponents . Despite her fame as a scientist working for France, the public's attitude to the scandal tended toward ].

Langevin's grandson Michel Langevin later married Skłodowska-Curie's granddaughter, ].

During ], Skłodowska-Curie pushed for the use of mobile ] units, which came to be popularly known as "Little Curies" (''petites Curies''), for the treatment of wounded soldiers. These units were powered using tubes of ''radium emanation'', a colorless, radioactive gas given off by radium, later identified as ]. Skłodowska-Curie personally provided the tubes, derived from the radium she purified. Also, promptly after the war started, she donated her and her husband's gold ] ]s for the war effort.

After World War I, in 1921 and again in 1929, Skłodowska-Curie toured the ], where she was welcomed triumphantly, to raise funds for research on radium. These distractions from her scientific labors, and the attendant publicity, caused her much discomfort but provided many resources for her work. Her second American tour succeeded in equipping the Warsaw Radium Institute, founded in 1925 with her sister Bronisława as director.

In her later years, Skłodowska-Curie headed the ] and a radioactivity laboratory created for her by the ].
]|] 20,000-] ] with likeness of Maria Skłodowska-Curie.]]
] ] with ''Marie Curie'' and (background) her husband and 1903 fellow-Nobel-laureate, ].]]
] 66'', ].]]

Her death near ], ], in 1934 was from ], almost certainly due to exposure to radiation, as the damaging effects of ] were not yet known, and much of her work had been carried out in a shed with no safety measures. She had carried test tubes containing radioactive isotopes in her pocket and stored them in her desk drawer, remarking on the pretty blue-green light the substances gave off in the dark.

She was interred at the cemetery in ], where Pierre lay, but sixty years later, in 1995, in honor of their work, the remains of both were transferred to the ] in ].

The Curies' elder daughter, ], won a ] for Chemistry in 1935 for discovering that aluminium could be radioactive and emit neutrons when bombarded with alpha rays. The younger daughter, ], wrote the biography, ''Madame Curie'', after her mother's death.

==Prizes==
*] (1903)
*] (1903)
*] (1904)
*] (1911)

==Tribute==
As one of the most famous female scientists to date, Marie Curie has been an icon in the scientific world and has inspired many tributes and recognitions. In 1995, she was the first and only woman laid to rest under the famous dome of the ], in Paris, on her own merits, alongside her husband. The ] (symbol '''Ci'''), a unit of radioactivity, is named in their honour, as is the element with atomic number 96 - ].

Skłodowska-Curie's likeness appeared on the Polish late-1980s ]ary ]. Her likeness also appeared on stamps and coins, and on the last French 500-] note, with her husband, before the franc was made obsolete by the ].

] and ] starred in the 1943 U.S. Oscar-nominated film, '']'', based on her life. "Marie Curie" is also the name of a character in the 1988 comedy, '']'', by ].

Three radioactive minerals are named after the Curies: , , and .

], the largest science, technology and medicine university in France, and successor institution to the faculty of science at the ], where she taught, is named in honour of her and Pierre. The university is home to the laboratory where they discovered ].

Another school named for her, Marie Curie ], in Bayside, New York, specializes in ] and ] as well as ] located in the community area of ] on ]. It has a Technical, Performing Arts, & IB program.

In 2007, the ] ] station was renamed the "]" station.

The ] Medallion, a ] panel created by ], may be found at the ] Polish Room.

==See also==
] (1911), Skłodowska-Curie (seated, 2nd from right), the only woman present, confers with ]. Standing, 4th from right, is ]; 2nd from right, ]; at far right, ].]]
* ] in ]
* ] in ]
* ]
* ]
* ]

==Further reading==
* Naomi Pasachoff, ''Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity'', New York, ], 1996.
* {{Cite book |title=Madame Curie: A Biography |first=Eve |last=Curie |authorlink=Eve Curie |isbn=0-306-81038-7}}
* {{Cite book |title=Marie Curie: A Life |first=Susan |last=Quinn |isbn=0-201-88794-0}}
* {{Cite book |title=Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie |first=Barbara |last=Goldsmith |isbn=0-393-05137-4}}

==Fiction==
* {{Cite book |title=The Book about Blanche and Marie |first=Per |last=Olov Enquist |isbn=1-58567-668-3}} a fictionalized account of relationships among Curie, JM Charcot and Blanche Wittman

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
{{commons|Marie Curie}}
{{wikiquote|Marie Curie}}
*Two biographies of Skłodowska-Curie, one brief and one comprehensive.
*-A study of women physicists
* Chronology from nobelprize.org
* and &ndash; Nobel committee page; presentation speech, her award lecture etc.
* in English.
* ; with quotes, photographs, links etc.
* at American Institute of Physics website ''(site also has a short version for kids entitled ''
*
*
*
*
* , UK
*
*
*
*
*
*]: Exhibit on the Life of Marie Curie.
*{{imdb title|id=0956189|title=Marie Curie}} - Animated bigraphy of Marie Curie on DVD from an animated series of world and American history - ] distributed by Nest Learning.
*{{imdb title|id=0281993|title=Marie Curie - More than Meets the Eye}} - Live Action portrayal of Marie Curie on DVD from the Inventors Series produced by Devine Entertainment.
*{{imdb title|id=0075534|title=Marie Curie}} - Portrayal of Marie Curie in a television mini series produced by the ]

<br>{{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1901-1925}}
{{Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates 1901-1925}}

<!-- Please do not delete! For explanation see ] -->

{{Persondata
|NAME=Curie, Marie
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Skłodowska-Curie, Maria (Polish)
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=] and ]
|DATE OF BIRTH=] ]
|PLACE OF BIRTH=], ]
|DATE OF DEATH=] ]
|PLACE OF DEATH=], ]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curie, Marie}}

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Revision as of 23:35, 27 September 2007

This article is about the chemist and physicist. For the school named after her, see École élémentaire Marie-Curie.