Marie Skłodowska Curie what she discovered. Maria Skłodowska-Curie short biography. Study and research in Paris

Marie Curie, a French physicist of Polish origin, coined the term "radioactivity" and discovered two elements: radium and polonium. Not only was she the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics, but after being awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, she became the first double winner of this prestigious award and the only one in two disciplines.

Marie Curie: a biography of the early years

Born in Warsaw on 11/07/1867, she was the youngest of five children of Władysław and Bronisława Skłodowski. After her father lost his job, the family suffered hardship and was forced to rent out rooms in their small apartment to guests. Religious as a child, Maria became disillusioned with her faith after her sister died of typhus in 1876. Two years later from tuberculosis, terrible disease, which affects the bones and lungs, the mother of Skłodowska-Curie died.

Maria was a brilliant student and in 1883 she graduated from high school with a gold medal. In Russia, which then included part of Poland, where the Sklodovsky family lived, girls were forbidden to study in higher educational institutions. Maria, at the suggestion of her father, spent a year at the dacha with friends. Returning to Warsaw the following summer, she began to earn a living as a tutor, and also began attending classes at the Flying University, an underground group of young men and women who tried to quench their thirst for knowledge at secret meetings.

In early 1886, Maria was hired as a governess by a family in Shchuky, but the intellectual loneliness she experienced there strengthened her determination to fulfill her dream of becoming a university student. One of her sisters, Bronya, was already in Paris by that time, where she successfully passed her exams in medicine. In September 1891, Maria moved in with her.

Study and research in Paris

When classes began at the Sorbonne in early November 1891, Maria entered the Faculty of Physics. By 1894, she was desperately looking for a laboratory where she could investigate the magnetic properties of steel alloys. She was advised to visit Pierre Curie at the School of Physics and Chemistry at the University of Paris. In 1895, Pierre and Marie were married, and thus began the most extraordinary partnership in scientific work.

By the middle of 1897, Curie had received two higher educations, completed her postgraduate studies, and also published a monograph on the magnetization of hardened steel. When her first daughter, Irene, was born, she and her husband turned their attention to the mysterious uranium radiation discovered by Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852-1908). Maria intuitively felt that radiation was a property of the atom and therefore must be present in some of the other elements. She soon discovered a similar emission from thorium and coined the historical term "radioactivity".

Outstanding discoveries

Looking for other sources of radioactivity, Pierre and Marie Curie turned their attention to uraninite, a mineral known for its uranium content. Much to their surprise, the radioactivity of the uranium ore far exceeded the combined radiation of the uranium and thorium it contained. For six months, two papers were sent to the Academy of Sciences. The first, read at a meeting on July 18, 1898, dealt with the discovery of the element polonium, named after Marie Curie's home country, Poland. The second was read on December 26 and reported on a new chemical element, radium.

From 1898 to 1902, after processing several tons of uranium ore, the couple obtained extremely precious hundredths of a gram of radium. But they were not the only reward for Curie's superhuman efforts. Marie and Pierre have published, jointly or separately, a total of 32 books over the years. scientific work. One of them said that under the influence of radium, diseased tumor cells are destroyed faster than healthy ones.

Confession

In November 1903, the Royal Society of London awarded the outstanding scientist one of their highest awards, the Davy Medal. A month later, the Nobel Foundation announced in Stockholm that three French scientists, A. Becquerel, Pierre and Marie Curie, had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. university.

In December 1904, the second daughter, Eva, was born to the couple of scientists. The following year, Pierre was elected to the Academy of Sciences, and the couple traveled to Stockholm, where on June 6 he delivered the Nobel Lecture, which was their joint address. Pierre ended his speech by saying that every major scientific advance has a twofold effect. He expressed the hope that "humanity will derive more benefit from new discoveries than harm."

Depression

The joyful period of the life of the married scientific team did not last long. On a rainy afternoon on 04/19/06, Pierre was shot down heavy crew and died instantly. Two weeks later, the widow was invited to take over as her late husband. The awards of scientific societies around the world began to pour in on a woman who was left alone with two small children, and who had an enormous burden of leading radioactivity research. In 1908 she edited the collected works of her late husband and in 1910 published her great job Traite de radioactivite. After some time, Marie Curie received the Nobel Prize for the second time, already in chemistry. However, she could not defeat the Academy of Sciences, which in once more denied her membership.

Einstein support

After the public found out about her romantic relationship with a married colleague Paul Langevin, who was then living apart from his wife, Marie Curie was branded as a homemaker and accused of using the work of her late husband and lacking her own achievements. Although she was awarded a second Nobel Prize, the nominating committee did not recommend that she travel to Stockholm to accept the award. Albert Einstein sent a letter to the depressed Curie, in which he admired her and advised her not to read the newspaper notes directed against her, but "leave them to the reptiles for whom they were fabricated." She soon recovered, went to Sweden and won her second Nobel Prize.

Radiology and war

During the First World War, Mary dedicated most of its time field hospitals and cars with primitive x-ray devices to help the wounded. These vehicles were dubbed "little Curies" in the war zone. Maria, who was 50 years old by the end of the war, spent most of her physical strength and savings patriotically invested in war bonds. But her devotion to science was inexhaustible. In 1919, she was reinstated at the Radium Institute, and two years later her book Radiology and War was published. In it, she informatively described the scientific and human experience obtained by this branch of science during the war. At the end of World War I, her daughter Irene, a physicist, was appointed as an assistant in her mother's laboratory.

Gift of the American people

Soon a landmark visit took place at the Radium Institute. The visitor was William Brown Meloni, editor of a leading New York magazine and spokesperson for many women who have for many years scientist Maria Curie served as an ideal and inspiration. A year later, Meloni returned to tell how a nationwide subscription had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in the United States to purchase 1 gram of radium for her institute. She was also invited to visit the United States with her daughters and personally collect the valuable gift. Her trip was an absolute triumph. At the White House, President Warren Harding gave her a golden key to a small metal box that contained valuable chemical element.

The beauty of science

On topics not related to scientific issues, the physicist Marie Curie rarely spoke publicly. One exception was her speech in 1933 at a conference on the future of culture. There she spoke out in defense of science, which some participants accused of dehumanizing modern life. “I am one of those,” she said, “who thinks that science has great beauty. The scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician; he and the child, placed before the phenomena of nature, which amaze him like a fairy tale. We must not allow all scientific progress to be reduced to mechanisms, machines and gears, although such machines are beautiful in their own way.

last years of life

The most touching moment that adorned the life of Marie Curie was probably the marriage of her daughter Irene to the most gifted employee of the Radium Institute, Frédéric Joliot, which took place in 1926. She soon saw clearly that their union would be reminiscent of her own marvelously creative collaboration with Pierre Curie.

Maria worked almost to the very end and successfully completed the manuscript of her latest book, Radioactivity. AT last years youngest daughter Eva gave her great support. She was also faithful companion his mother when Marie Curie died on 07/04/34. The biography of the outstanding physicist was interrupted in Sansellemose, France. Albert Einstein once said that she is the only celebrity who has not been corrupted by fame.

Marie Curie: interesting facts

The ingenious woman physicist personally provided medical assistance to French soldiers during the First World War. She helped equip 20 ambulances and hundreds of field hospitals with primitive X-ray machines to make it easier for surgeons to find and remove bullets and shrapnel from wounded soldiers. This and the sterilization of wounds with radon saved the lives of a million people.
Curie was the first recipient of two Nobel Prizes and remains the only one to receive them in different disciplines.

Initially, her name was not mentioned in the nomination for the Nobel Foundation Prize in Physics. However, thanks to the efforts of committee member Magnus Gustav Mittag-Leffler, Professor of Mathematics at Stockholm University College, and her husband, the official nomination was completed.
In Poland, the Marie Curie University, founded in 1944, is one of the largest state universities countries.
The physicist was unaware of the dangers of radioactivity. She spent every day in a laboratory full of hazardous materials. At home, Curie used a sample of the radioactive substance as a night light by her bed. Until the very end, Maria did not know that her discovery was the cause of her pain and illness. Her personal belongings and lab records are still so contaminated that they cannot be safely examined or studied.
Her daughter Irene Joliot-Curie also won the prestigious award. She and her husband were honored for their achievements in the synthesis of new radioactive elements.
The word "radioactivity" was coined by Pierre and Marie Curie.
The 1943 film Madame Curie by American director Mervyn Leroy was nominated for an Oscar.

Scientific area: Alma mater: Known as: Awards and prizes

Maria Sklodowska-Curie(fr. Marie Curie, Polish Maria Skłodowska-Curie; nee Maria Salomea Sklodowska, Polish. Maria Salomea Skłodowska; November 7, 1867, Warsaw, Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire - July 4, 1934, near Sansellmoz, France) - Polish-French experimental scientist (physicist, chemist), teacher, public figure. Twice winner of the Nobel Prize: in physics () and chemistry (), the first double winner of the prize in history. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and Warsaw. The wife of Pierre Curie, together with him was engaged in the study of radioactivity. Together with her husband, she discovered the elements radium (from lat. radiare"radiate") and polonium (from the Latin name for Poland Polōnia, - a tribute to the motherland of Maria Sklodowska).

Biography and scientific achievements

Maria Sklodowska was born in Warsaw in the family of teacher Joseph Sklodovsky, where, in addition to Maria, three more daughters and a son grew up. The family lived hard, the mother died long and painfully from tuberculosis, the father was exhausted to treat his sick wife and feed his five children. Her childhood years were overshadowed by the early loss of one of her sisters and soon her mother.

Even as a schoolgirl, she was distinguished by extraordinary diligence and diligence. Maria strove to do her work in the most thorough manner, without allowing inaccuracies, often sacrificing sleep and regular meals for this. She studied so intensively that, after graduating from school, she had to take a break to improve her health.

Maria sought to continue her education, but in the Russian Empire, which at that time included Poland, women's opportunities to get higher science education were limited. According to some reports, Maria graduated from the underground women's higher courses, which had the informal name "Flying University". The Sklodowski sisters, Maria and Bronislava, agreed to take turns working as governesses for several years in order to take turns getting an education. Maria worked for several years as an educator-governess while Bronislava studied at medical institute in Paris. Then, when her sister became a doctor, in 1891, at the age of 24, Maria was able to go to the Sorbonne, in Paris, where she studied chemistry and physics while Bronislava earned money for her sister's education.

Living in a cold attic in the Latin Quarter, she studied and worked extremely intensively, having neither the time nor the means to organize a normal diet. Mary became one of best female students University, received two diplomas - physics and mathematics. Her diligence and ability drew attention to her and she was given the opportunity to conduct independent research.

Maria Sklodowska became the first female teacher in the history of the Sorbonne. In 1894, at the home of a Polish émigré physicist, Maria Skłodowska met Pierre Curie. Pierre was the head of the laboratory at the Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry. By that time, he had done important research on crystal physics and dependence. magnetic properties substances from temperature. The term "Curie Point" on the temperature scale corresponding to the temperature at which a ferromagnetic material loses its property of ferromagnetism is also associated with his name. Maria was researching the magnetization of steel, and her Polish friend hoped that Pierre could give Maria the opportunity to work in his laboratory.

Maria prompted Pierre to compare the intensity of radioactivity of uranium compounds obtained from different deposits. Uranium salts were used at that time to produce colored glass. (de. Pechblende - Uranerz.

Without any laboratory and working in a shed on the rue Lomont in Paris, from 1902 they processed eight tons of uranium ore.

The method of their work was to measure the degree of air ionization, the intensity of which was determined by the strength of the current between the plates, one of which was supplied with a voltage of 600 V. It turned out that the samples delivered from Johimstal give four times stronger ionization. The couple did not pass by this fact and tried to establish whether the same compound, but obtained artificially, gives the same effect. The result was negative. This gave reason to believe that they were dealing with the presence of an unknown radioactive substance. By studying the selected various methods fractions, they isolated one that had a radioactivity a million times stronger than pure uranium.

In the frontline zone, Curie helped create radiological installations and supply first aid stations with portable X-ray machines. She summarized the accumulated experience in the monograph "Radiology and War" in 1920.

In the last years of her life, she continued to teach at the Radium Institute, where she supervised the work of students and actively promoted the use of radiology in medicine. She wrote a 1923 biography of Pierre Curie. From time to time, Skłodowska-Curie made trips to Poland, which gained independence at the end of the war. There she advised Polish researchers. In 1921, together with her daughters, Sklodowska-Curie visited the USA to accept a gift of 1 g of radium to continue the experiments. During her second visit to the United States () she received a donation, for which she purchased another gram of radium for therapeutic use in one of the Warsaw hospitals. But as a result of many years of work with radium, her health began to noticeably deteriorate.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie died in 1934 from leukemia-aplastic anemia. Her death is a tragic lesson - while working with radioactive substances, she did not take any precautions and even wore an ampoule of radium on her chest as a talisman. She was buried next to Pierre Curie in the Paris Panthéon.

Children

Irene Joliot-Curie (-) - Nobel laureate in chemistry .
Eva Curie (-) - journalist, author of a book about her mother, was married to Henry Richardson Labouisse Jr. (Henry Richardson Labouisse, Jr.).

Awards and titles

In addition to two Nobel Prizes, Sklodowska-Curie was awarded:

Berthelot medals of the French Academy of Sciences ()
Davy Medals of the Royal Society of London ()
Matteucci medal, Italian National Academy of Sciences (1904)
Elliot Cresson medals (English) Russian Franklin Institute ().

She was a member of 85 scientific societies around the world, including the French medical academy received 20 honorary degrees. From 1911 until her death, Skłodowska-Curie took part in the prestigious Solvay congresses on physics, and for 12 years she was a member of the International Commission on Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations.

Memory

Skłodowska-Curie is the first woman to be buried in the Paris Pantheon in 1995 with her husband. In honor of Pierre and Marie Curie, a chemical element is named - curium, a unit of curie ( Ci), the radioactive material is curite and kuprosklodovskite.

In Warsaw, the Skłodowska-Curie Museum was organized in the house where Skłodowska was born.

In Poland, the Oncology Center is named after Curie - the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Institute in Warsaw, the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, a private college in Warsaw ( Uczelnia Warszawska im. Marii Skłodowskiej-Curie) and many schools different levels countrywide. In France, the University of Pierre and Marie Curie and one of the metro stations are named after her.

Literature

Curie E. Pierre and Marie Curie. - M .: Young Guard, 1959. - 432 p. - (Life of remarkable people. Issue 5 (271)). - 50,000 copies.(in trans.)
Cotton E. The Curie family and radioactivity / Eugenie Cotton / Per. from French N. E. Gorfinkel and A. N. Sokolova .. - M .: Atomizdat, 1964. - 176 p.
Curie E. Marie Curie / Eva Curie / Per. from French E. F. Korsha (†); Ed. prof. V. V. Alpatova .. - Ed. 4th. - M .: Atomizdat, 1977. - 328 p. - 700,000 copies.(reg.)
Ioffe A.F. Maria Skladovskaya-Curie // On Physics and Physicists. - L.: Nauka, 1977.
Laureates Nobel Prize: Encyclopedia. Per. from English - M.: Progress, 1992.
Robert Reid, Marie Curie, New York, New American Library, 1974.
Teresa Kaczorowska, Córka mazowieckich równin, czyli Maria Skłodowska-Curie z Mazowsza(Daughter of the Mazovian Plains: Maria Skłodowska-Curie of Mazowsze), Ciechanów, 2007.
Wojciech A. Wierzewski, " Mazowieckie Korzenie Marii"("Maria's Mazowsze Roots"), Gwiazda Polarna(Pole Star), a Polish-American biweekly, vol. 100, no. 13 (21 June 2008), pp. 16–17.
L. Pearce Williams, Curie, Pierre and Marie, Encyclopedia Americana, Danbury, Connecticut, Grolier, Inc., 1986, vol. 8, pp. 331–32.
Barbara Goldsmith, Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie, New York, W.W. Norton, 2005, ISBN 0-393-05137-4.
naomi pasachoff, Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity, New York, Oxford University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-19-509214-7.
ev Curie, Madame Curie: A Biography, translated by Vincent Sheean, Da Capo Press, 2001, ISBN 0-30-681038-7 .
Susan Quinn, Marie Curie: A Life, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1995, ISBN 0-671-67542-7 .
Francoise Giroud, Marie Curie: A Life, translated by Lydia Davis, Holmes & Meier, 1986, ASIN B000TOOU7Q.
Redniss, Lauren Radioactive, Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, New York, Harper Collins, 2010, ISBN 978-0-06-135132-7 .

Notes

Nobel Laureate Facts. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
Irina Ilyinichna Semashko. 100 great women. - Veche, 2006. - ISBN 5-9533-0491-9
David Palfreyman (ed.), Ted Tapperm, Understanding Mass Higher Education, Routledge (UK), 2004, ISBN 0-415-35491-9 , Google Print, pp. 141-142
Menschen, die die Welt veranderten. Herausgeben von Roland Göck. Berlin-Darmstadt-Wien. Buch Nr.-019836
Small encyclopedia of discoveries./Comp. I. E. Sviridova, N. G. Sirotenko - M: AST Publishing House LLC; Kharkov: "Torsing", 2001.-607 p. ISBN 5-17-010344-1 ("AST Publishing House"); ISBN 966-7661-96-2 ("Torsing")
Welt im Umbruch 1900-1914. Verlag Das Beste GmbH.Stuttgart.1999 ISBN 3-870-70837-9
Henryk Zielinski, Historia Polski 1914-1939(History of Poland: 1914-39), Ossolineum, 1983, p. 83.
Rollyson, Carl (2004). Marie Curie: Honesty In Science. iUniverse, prologue, x. ISBN 0-595-34059-8
History and description of the method: radionuclide diagnostics // Forum of the Department of Radiation Diagnostics of the First Moscow State Medical University. I. M. Sechenova
Marie Curie Enshrined in Pantheon , The New York Times, New York, April 21, 1995.
curie - Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Britannica.com (April 15, 2006). Archived from the original on May 30, 2012. Retrieved September 26, 2009.
Paul W Frame How the Curie Came to Be. Archived from the original on May 30, 2012. Retrieved April 30, 2008.
Most inspirational woman scientist revealed. Newscientist.com (July 2, 2009).

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The name of this amazing woman will forever remain in history, it owns grandiose discoveries in the field of chemistry and physics. She was the first lady to win the Nobel Prize, and even twice the winner. At the same time, she did not become a scientist cracker or a blue stocking, she was lucky to love, be loved, find out what family happiness is, and raise two beautiful daughters.

In November 1867 in Warsaw in large family Sklodovskih had a daughter, Maria. The girl grew up in a family where science was God. Maria's father, graduate Petersburg University, taught mathematics and physics at the gymnasium, and his mother was the director of the women's boarding school, where girls from the best families studied.

Of course, she was also engaged in raising her five children. Everything went well until fate got angry at the family: her mother died of consumption when Mary was only 11 years old. Soon the father invested all the family's savings in some dubious enterprise and lost his job and apartment.

Trouble after trouble ... But Maria remained one of the best students in the gymnasium and graduated with a gold medal. However, going to higher educational institution it was impossible for a woman in Poland, and there were no funds for education. And I wanted to learn! And she got a job as a laboratory assistant in a chemical laboratory owned by her cousin, where D. I. Mendeleev noticed the girl’s abilities and predicted a great future for her. Oh, how she wanted to go to the Sorbonne, but the affairs of the family were very deplorable.

And then she and her sister came up with a plan: Maria would work as a governess and pay for her sister’s education at a medical institute, and then Bronya would cover the costs of higher education sisters. And two brave suffragettes have achieved everything! Bronya became a doctor, got married and took Maria to her place in Paris, so that in 1891 her dream came true - Maria entered the Sorbonne at the Faculty of Natural Sciences.

Meeting with fate

In 1893, she already had a degree in physics, so that when she met Pierre Curie, head of the laboratory at the Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry, she struck him to the core.

Pierre always considered women charming, but stupid, and here in front of him was a potential girlfriend and comrade-in-arms!

And he immediately made an offer to Sklodowska. Let's not pretend: Maria's decision was influenced by the fact that the groom had just defended his doctoral dissertation on the magnetic properties of substances - the topic is more than interesting for her! The newlyweds spent much more time in the laboratory than in the bedroom, but still in 1897 their daughter Irene was born. The upbringing of the baby slightly distracted the young mother from studying the radiation of uranium compounds.

And yet, radioactivity attracted Maria much more than the kitchen and the nursery. In December 1898, the Curies announced the discovery of two new elements: radium and polonium (named after Poland). True, in order to provide evidence of their existence, it was necessary to isolate them from the ore, which was very difficult, but if you don’t leave the workshop for four years, if you don’t think about the harm to your own health and forget even about a small child, success will come sooner or later ! But not necessarily in the form of money. The Curie spouses from lack of money were forced to earn extra money as teachers in high school. And thanks to Pierre's father - he helped raise baby Irene.

In 1903, Marie presented her dissertation "Investigations into Radioactive Substances" at the Sorbonne, which was recognized as "the greatest contribution to science ever made by a doctoral dissertation". Maria was awarded a degree by striumf. At the same time, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences presented the Nobel Prize in Physics to the Curies, and Maria became the first woman in the world to receive this high award.

Another Nobel Prize

In the process of researching radium, the Curies noted its effect on the human body, although they did not know how dangerous this effect was. But they immediately guessed about the properties of radioactive substances to treat cancer. And world science immediately recognized their discovery, but the strange Curies did not receive a patent, saying that they were categorically against extracting commercial benefits from the results of their research.

Nevertheless, the financial situation of the family improved, thanks to the Nobel Prize received. In addition, Pierre received a position as a professor of physics at the Sorbonne, and Maria headed a scientific laboratory there.

So by the birth of their second daughter, Eva, who later became a famous pianist and mother's biographer, the family lived quite happily. “I have found in marriage everything that I could dream of at the moment of the conclusion of our union, and even Moreover," Maria said. But in April 1906, the idyll collapsed: Pierre died under the wheels of a freight wagon. And Maria's world changed forever - she became isolated, lost interest in everything except work.

It is good that she was offered a chair at the Sorbonne, previously headed by Pierre. It helped to survive. And she again became the first: this time the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne. At the same time, she continued to study radioactive elements, made discovery after discovery ... But when in 1910 she was nominated for election to the French Academy of Sciences, she was rejected during the voting under the insulting pretext: "Because she is a woman."

True, some time later, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences again awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Maria Sklodowska-Curie - for the discovery of the elements radium and polonium. And this award "for the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this wonderful element" compensated for the humiliation from the academicians. At the meeting of the commission, it was noted that her research contributed to the birth new science- radiology.

"There is nothing in life to be afraid of"

Before the outbreak of World War I, the Radium Institute was formed, in which Marie Curie headed the Department of Fundamental Research and medical use radioactivity. She helped create radiological installations, supply medical aid stations with X-ray machines. In 1920, her monograph "Radiology and War" was published, and then a biography of Pierre ...

Maria worked actively, traveled around the world with lectures ... But many years of work with hazardous elements did not pass without a trace: in July 1934, Marie Curie died of leukemia. Her devotion to science is legendary, her diligence and self-denial serve as an example to modern scientists. Modesty and aversion to money-grubbing can only evoke bewilderment and condescending smiles today.

Is this possible in our age of the triumph of the consumer?! The Lord gave her so much: talent, an inquisitive mind, success, love and motherhood... It must be a reward for her courage. After all, her words “In life there is nothing to be afraid of, there is only what needs to be understood” have become the motto for scientific researchers around the world.

Galina BELYSHEVA

Date of death: Place of death: Scientific area: Alma mater: Known as:

Discovery of the elements radium and polonium, isolation of radium

Awards and prizes

Together with her husband, she discovered the elements radium (from lat. radius- emitting) and polonium (from lat. polonium(Polonia - lat. "Poland") - a tribute to the homeland of Maria Sklodowska).

Biography and scientific achievements

Maria Sklodowska was born in Warsaw. Her childhood years were overshadowed by the early loss of one of her sisters and, soon after, her mother. Even as a schoolgirl, she was distinguished by extraordinary diligence and diligence. Maria strove to complete the work in the most thorough manner, without allowing inaccuracies, often at the expense of sleep and regular meals. She studied so intensively that, after graduating from school, she had to take a break to improve her health.

Maria sought to continue her education, however, in the Russian Empire, which at that time included Poland, the opportunities for women to receive higher scientific education were limited. The Sklodowski sisters, Maria and Bronislava, agreed to take turns working as governesses for several years in order to take turns getting an education. Maria worked for several years as an educator-governess while Bronislava studied at the Medical Institute in Paris. Then Maria, at the age of 24, was able to go to the Sorbonne, in Paris, where she studied chemistry and physics while Bronislava earned money for her sister's education.

Maria Sklodowska became the first female teacher in the history of the Sorbonne. At the Sorbonne she met Pierre Curie, also a teacher, whom she later married. Together they began to study the anomalous rays (X-rays) that emitted uranium salts. Having no laboratory, and working in a shed on Rue Lomont in Paris, from 1898 to 1902 they processed 8 tons of uranium ore and isolated one hundredth of a gram of a new substance - radium. Later, polonium was discovered - an element named after the birthplace of Marie Curie. In 1903, Marie and Pierre Curie received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for outstanding services in their joint investigations of the phenomena of radiation". Being at the awards ceremony, the spouses are thinking of creating their own laboratory and even an institute of radioactivity. Their idea was brought to life, but much later.

After tragic death husband Pierre Curie in 1906, Marie Skłodowska-Curie inherited his chair at the University of Paris.

In addition to two Nobel Prizes, Sklodowska-Curie was awarded:

Berthelot medal of the French Academy of Sciences (1902),
Davy of London medals royal society (1903)
Elliot Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute (1909).

She was a member of 85 scientific societies around the world, including the French Medical Academy, received 20 honorary degrees. From 1911 until her death, Sklodowska-Curie took part in the prestigious Solvay congresses on physics, and for 12 years she was a member of the International Commission on Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations.

Children

Irene Joliot-Curie (-) - Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
Eve Curie (-) - journalist, author of a book about her mother, was married to Nobel Peace Prize winner Henry Richardson Labouisse Jr. (Henry Richardson Labouisse, Jr.)

Links

Eva Curie. "Marie Curie"

Laureates

Maria Sklodowska-Curie (born Maria Salomea Sklodowska, Polish Maria Salomea Skłodowska; November 7, 1867, Warsaw, Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire - July 4, 1934, near Sansellmoz, France) - French experimental scientist of Polish origin (physicist, chemist ), teacher, public figure. Awarded the Nobel Prize: in physics (1903) and in chemistry (1911), the first twice Nobel laureate in history. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and Warsaw. The wife of Pierre Curie, together with him was engaged in the study of radioactivity. Together with her husband, she discovered the elements radium (from the Latin radius “beam”) and polonium (from the Latin name for Poland, Polōnia – a tribute to the homeland of Maria Skłodowska).

Maria Sklodowska was born in Warsaw in the family of teacher Vladislav Sklodovsky, where, in addition to Maria, three more daughters and a son grew up. Marie's sisters and brother were Zofia (1862), Józef (1863), Bronislawa (1865) and Helena (1866). The family lived hard, the mother died long and painfully from tuberculosis, the father was exhausted to treat his sick wife and feed his five children. Her childhood years were overshadowed by the early loss of one of her sisters and, soon after, her mother.

Be less curious about people but more curious about ideas.

Curie Maria

Maria wanted to continue her education, but in Russian Empire, which at that time included the provinces of the Privislinsky region, the opportunities for women to receive a higher scientific education were limited. According to some reports, Maria graduated from the underground women's higher courses, which had the informal name "Flying University". The Sklodowski sisters, Maria and Bronislava, agreed to take turns working as governesses for several years in order to take turns getting an education. Maria worked for several years as an educator-governess while Bronislava studied at the Medical Institute in Paris. Then, when Bronislava became a doctor, in 1891 Maria, at the age of 24, was able to go to Paris, to the Sorbonne, where she studied chemistry and physics, while her sister earned money for her education.

Living in a cold attic in the Latin Quarter, she studied and worked extremely intensively, having neither the time nor the means to organize a normal diet. Maria became one of the best students of the university, received two diplomas - a diploma in physics and a diploma in mathematics. Her diligence and ability attracted attention to her, and she was given the opportunity to conduct independent research.

Maria Sklodowska became the first female teacher in the history of the Sorbonne. In 1894, at the home of a Polish émigré physicist, Maria Skłodowska met Pierre Curie. Pierre was the head of the laboratory at the Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry. By that time, he had carried out important research on the physics of crystals and the dependence of the magnetic properties of substances on temperature; for example, the term “Curie point” is associated with his name, denoting the temperature at which a ferromagnetic material abruptly loses the property of ferromagnetism. Maria was researching the magnetization of steel, and her Polish friend hoped that Pierre could give Maria the opportunity to work in his laboratory.

Shortly after the birth of her first daughter Irene (September 12, 1897), Maria began work on her doctoral thesis on the study of radioactivity.

All my life the new wonders of nature made me rejoice like a child.

Curie Maria

Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War (August 1914), the University of Paris and the Pasteur Institute established the Radium Institute for research on radioactivity. Curie was appointed director of the Department of Fundamental Research and Medical Applications of Radioactivity. During the war, she trained military medics in the use of radiology, in particular, the detection of shrapnel in the body of a wounded person using x-rays. In the frontline zone, Curie helped create radiological installations and supply first aid stations with portable X-ray machines. She summarized the accumulated experience in the monograph "Radiology and War" in 1920.

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