Marie Curie Her achievements include the creation of a theory of radioactivity (a term

coined by her[2]), techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the

discovery of two new elements, polonium and radium. It was also under her
personal direction that the world's first studies were conducted into the
Marie Skłodowska–Curie treatment of neoplasms (cancers), 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)
polonium for her native country,[3] and in 1932 she founded a Radium Institute
(now the Maria Skłodowska–Curie Institute of Oncology) in her home town
Warsaw, headed by her physician-sister Bronisława.

Early life

Dołęga coat-of-arms, hereditary in Skłodowska's family

7 November 1867
Born
Warsaw, Vistula Country, Russian Empire Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland, on November 7, 1867, the
fifth and youngest child of well-known teachers Bronisława and Władysław
4 July 1934 (aged 66) Skłodowski. Maria's older siblings were Zofia (born 1862), Józef (1863),
Died
Passy, France Bronisława (1865) and Helena (1866).

Citizenship Russian, later French Maria's grandfather Józef Skłodowski had been a respected teacher in Lublin,
Nationality where he had taught the young Bolesław Prus.[4] Her father Władysław
Polish
Skłodowski taught mathematics and physics, subjects that Maria was to pursue,
Fields physics, chemistry and was director successively of two Warsaw gymnasia for boys, in addition to
lodging boys in the family home. Her mother, Bronisława, operated a
Institutions University of Paris prestigious Warsaw girls' boarding school; she suffered from tuberculosis and
died when Maria was twelve. Maria's father was an atheist, and her mother a
University of Paris devout Catholic.[5]
Alma mater
ESPCI
Two years earlier, Maria's oldest sibling, Zofia, had died of typhus. The deaths
Doctoral advisor Henri Becquerel of her mother and sister, according to Robert William Reid, caused Maria to
give up Catholicism and become agnostic.[6]
André-Louis Debierne
Doctoral students Óscar Moreno When she was ten years old, Maria began attending the boarding school that her
mother had operated while she was well; next Maria attended a female
Marguerite Catherine Perey gymnasium, from which she graduated on 12 June 1883. She spent the
following year in the countryside at her father's relatives, and next with her
Known for radioactivity, polonium, radium father in Warsaw, where she did some tutoring.
Nobel Prize in Physics (1903)
On both the paternal and maternal sides, the family had lost their property and
Davy Medal (1903) fortunes through patriotic involvements in Polish national uprisings. This
Notable awards
Matteucci Medal (1904) condemned each subsequent generation, including that of Maria and her elder
sisters and brother, to a difficult struggle to get ahead in life.[7]
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911)
Religious stance Agnostic

Notes
She is the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two sciences.
She was the wife of Pierre Curie, and the mother of Irene Joliot-Curie and Ève
Curie.
Marie Skłodowska Curie (November 7, 1867 – 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,[1] and the first female professor at the University of Paris.
She was born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw (then Vistula Country, Russian
Empire; now Poland) and lived there until she was 24. In 1891 she followed her
elder sister Bronisława 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 co-laureate of hers,
and her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie and son-in-law Frédéric Joliot-Curie also
received Nobel prizes.
Krakowskie Przedmieście 66, near Warsaw's Old Town (in the distance). As
noted on the plaque, it was here, in 1890–91, that Maria Skłodowska did her
first scientific work.
Maria made an agreement with her sister Bronisława, that she would give her
financial assistance during Bronisława's medical studies in Paris, in exchange
for similar assistance two years later.[8] In connection with this, she took a
position as governess. First with a lawyer's family in Kraków, then for two
years in Ciechanów with a landed family, the Żorawskis, relatives of her father.
While working for the latter family, she fell in love with their son Kazimierz
Żorawski, which the future eminent mathematician reciprocated. His parents,
however, rejected the idea of his marrying the penniless relative, and Kazimierz
was unable to oppose them. Maria lost her governess' position. [9] She found
another with the Fuchs family in Sopot, on the Baltic Sea coast, where she
spent the next year, all the while financially assisting her sister.
Kazimierz Żorawski in later life
At the beginning of 1890, Bronisława, who had a few months earlier married
Kazimierz Dłuski, invited Maria to join them in Paris. Maria declined because
she could not afford the university tuition and was still counting on marrying
Kazimierz Żorawski. She returned home to her father, with whom she remained
till the fall of 1891, tutoring, studying at the clandestine Floating University,
and beginning her practical scientific training in a laboratory at the Museum of
Industry and Agriculture run by her cousin Józef Boguski, who had been
assistant in St. Petersburg to the great Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleyev.[10]
In October 1891, at her sister's insistence and after receiving a letter from
Żorawski definitively breaking up with her, she decided to go to France after
all.[5]
Maria's breakup with Żorawski was tragic for both. He soon earned a doctorate
and pursued an academic career as a mathematician, becoming a professor and
rector of Kraków University and president of the Warsaw Society of Learning;
still, as an old man, a mathematics professor at the Warsaw Polytechnic, he
would sit contemplatively in front of the statue of Maria Skłodowska before the
Radium Institute that she had founded.[11] Maria, in Paris, briefly found shelter
with her sister and brother-in-law before renting a primitive garret [12] and
proceeding with her studies of physics, chemistry and mathematics at the
Sorbonne (the University of Paris).
Sorbonne
Pierre Curie
Skłodowska studied during the day, and she tutored evenings, barely earning
her keep. In 1893 she obtained a degree in physics and began work in an
industrial laboratory at Lippman's. Meanwhile she continued studying at the
Sorbonne and in 1894 earned a degree in mathematics.
In the same year Pierre Curie entered her life. He was an instructor in the
School of Physics and Chemistry, the École Supérieure de Physique et de
Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI). Skłodowska had begun her
scientific career in Paris with an investigation of the magnetic properties of
various steels; it was their mutual interest in magnetism that drew Skłodowska
and Curie together.
Her departure for the summer to Warsaw only enhanced their mutual feelings
for each other. She was still laboring under the illusion that she would be able
to return to Poland and work in her chosen field of study. When, however, she
was denied a place at Kraków University merely because she was a woman,[14]
she returned to Paris. Almost a year later, in July 1895, she and Pierre Curie
married, and thereafter the two physicists hardly ever left their laboratory. Their
shared hobbies were only long bicycle trips and journeys abroad, which brought
them even closer. Maria had found a new love, a partner and scientific
collaborator that she could depend on.[15]
New elements
In 1896 Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium salts emitted rays that
resembled X-rays in their penetrating power. He demonstrated that this
radiation, unlike phosphorescence, did not depend on an external source of
energy but seemed to arise spontaneously from uranium itself. Becquerel had in
fact discovered radioactivity.
Skłodowska–Curie decided to look into uranium rays as a possible field of
research for a thesis. She used a clever technique to investigate samples. Fifteen
years earlier, her husband and his brother had invented the electrometer, a
device for measuring extremely low electrical currents. Using the Curie
electrometer, she discovered that uranium rays caused the air around a sample
to conduct electricity.[16] Her first result, using this technique, was the finding
that the activity of the uranium compounds depended only on the amount of
uranium present. She had shown that the radiation was not the outcome of some
interaction between molecules but must come from the atom itself. In scientific
terms, this was the most important single piece of work that she carried out.[17]
Skłodowska–Curie's systematic studies had included two uranium minerals,
pitchblende and torbernite. Her electrometer showed that pitchblende was four
times as active as uranium itself, and chalcolite twice as active. She concluded
that, if her earlier results relating the amount of uranium to its activity were
correct, then these two minerals must contain small amounts of some other
substance far more active than uranium itself.[18]
The idea [writes Reid] was her own; no one helped her formulate it, and
although she took it to her husband for his opinion she clearly established her
ownership of it. She later recorded the fact twice in her biography of her
husband to ensure there was no chance whatever of any ambiguity. It [is] likely
that already at this early stage of her career [she] realized that... many scientists
would find it difficult to believe that a woman could be capable of the original
work in which she was involved.[19]
In her systematic search for other substances besides uranium salts that emitted
radiation, Skłodowska–Curie had found that the element thorium was likewise
radioactive.
Pierre and Marie Curie in their Paris lab, before 1907
She was acutely aware of the importance of promptly publishing her
discoveries and thus establishing her priority. Had Becquerel, two years earlier,
not presented his discovery to the Académie des Sciences the day after he made
it, credit for the discovery of radioactivity, and even a Nobel Prize, would
instead have gone to Silvanus Thompson. Skłodowska–Curie chose the same
rapid means of publication. Her paper, giving a brief, simple account of her
work, was presented for her to the Académie on April 12, 1898, by her former
professor, Gabriel Lippmann.[20]
Even so, just as Thompson had been beaten by Becquerel, so Skłodowska–
Curie was beaten in the race to tell of her discovery that thorium gives off rays
in the same way as uranium. Two months earlier, Gerhard Schmidt had
published his own finding in Berlin.[21]
No one else in the world of physics had, however, yet noticed what
Skłodowska–Curie recorded in a sentence of her paper in describing how much
greater were the activities of pitchblende and chalcolite compared with uranium
itself: "The fact is very remarkable, and leads to the belief that these minerals
may contain an element which is much more active than uranium." She would
later recall how she felt "a passionate desire to verify this hypothesis as rapidly
as possible."[22]
Pierre Curie was sure that what she had discovered was not a spurious effect.
He was so intrigued that he decided to temporarily drop his work on crystals
and join her. On 14 April 1898, they optimistically weighed out a 100-gram
sample of pitchblende and ground it with a pestle and mortar. They did not then
realize that what they were searching for was present in such minute quantities
that they would eventually have to process tons of the ore.[23]
In July 1898, Skłodowska–Curie and her husband together published a paper
announcing the existence of an element which they named "polonium," in
honor of her native Poland, which would for another twenty years remain
partitioned among three empires. On 26 December 1898, the Curies announced
the existence of a second element, which they named "radium" for its intense
radioactivity — a word that they coined.
Pitchblende is a complex mineral, and the chemical separation of its
constituents was an arduous task. The discovery of polonium had been
relatively easy; chemically it resembles the element bismuth, and polonium was
the only bismuth-like substance in the ore. But radium was more elusive; it is
closely related chemically to barium, and pitchblende contains both elements.
By 1898 the Curies had obtained traces of radium, but appreciable quantities,
uncontaminated with barium, were still beyond reach.[24]
The Curies undertook the arduous task of separating out radium salt by
differential crystallization. From a ton of pitchblende, one-tenth of a gram of
radium chloride was separated in 1902. By 1910 Skłodowska–Curie, working
on without her husband, who had been killed in 1906, had isolated the pure
radium metal.[25]
In an unusual decision, Marie Skłodowska–Curie intentionally refrained from
patenting the radium-isolation process so that the scientific community could
do research unhindered.[26]
Since they were unaware of the deleterious effects of radiation exposure
attendant on their chronic unprotected work with radioactive substances,
Skłodowska–Curie and her husband had no idea what price they were paying
for their research.[15]
In 1903, under the supervision of Henri Becquerel,[27] Marie received her DSc
from the University of Paris.
Nobel Prizes
Maria's 1911 Nobel Prize photo
In 1903, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Pierre Curie, Marie
Curie, and Henri Becquerel the Nobel Prize in Physics, "in recognition of the
extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the
radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."
Skłodowska–Curie and her husband were unable to go to Stockholm to receive
the prize in person, but they shared its financial proceeds with needy
acquaintances, including students.[15]
On receiving the Nobel Prize, Marie and Pierre Curie suddenly became very
famous. The Sorbonne gave Pierre a professorship and permitted him to
establish his own laboratory, in which Skłodowska–Curie became director of
research.
Maria Skłodowska–Curie's 1911 Nobel Prize diploma
In 1897 and 1904, respectively, Skłodowska–Curie gave birth to their
daughters, Irène and Eve Curie. She would later hire Polish governesses to
teach them her native language, and send or take them on visits to Poland.[28]
Skłodowska–Curie was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize. Eight
years later, she would receive the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, "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."
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 Nobel Prize in two different
fields, the other being Linus Pauling (Chemistry, Peace). Nevertheless in 1911
the French Academy of Sciences refused to abandon its prejudice against
women and she failed by two votes to be elected to membership, losing to
Édouard Branly, an inventor who had helped Guglielmo Marconi develop the
wireless telegraph.[29] It would be her doctoral student, Marguerite Perey, who
would be the first woman elected to the Academy — in 1962, over half a
century later.
Pierre's death
On April 19, 1906, Pierre was killed in a street accident. Walking across the
Rue Dauphine in heavy rain, 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.
Skłodowska–Curie was devastated by her husband's death. She noted that as of
that moment she had suddenly become "an incurably and wretchedly lonely
person." On May 13, 1906, the Sorbonne physics department decided to retain
the chair that had been created for Pierre Curie and entrusted it to Skłodowska–
Curie together with full authority over the laboratory. This allowed her to
emerge from Pierre's shadow. She became the first female professor at the
Sorbonne, and sought in her exhausting work regime a meaning for her life.
Paul Langevin in later life
Recognition for her work now grew to a crescendo, and in 1911 the Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded her a second Nobel Prize. A delegation
of celebrated Polish men of learning, headed by world-famous novelist Henryk
Sienkiewicz, besought her to return to Poland and continue her research in her
native country.[15]
In 1911, too, it transpired that in 1910–11 Skłodowska–Curie had conducted an
affair of about a year's duration with physicist Paul Langevin, an ex-student of
Pierre Curie's[30]—a married man who had left his wife. This resulted in a press
scandal, exploited by her academic opponents. Despite her fame as a scientist
working for France, the public's attitude tended toward xenophobia—the same
that had led to the Dreyfus Affair and that now fueled false speculation that
Skłodowska–Curie was Jewish. Five years Langevin's senior, she was portrayed
in the tabloids as a home-wrecker.[31] Later, Skłodowska–Curie's granddaughter,
Hélène Joliot, would marry Langevin's grandson, Michel Langevin.
Skłodowska–Curie's second Nobel Prize, in 1911, enabled her to talk the
French government into funding the building of a private Radium Institute
(Institut du radium, now the Institut Curie), which was built in 1914 and at
which research was conducted in chemistry, physics and medicine. The Institute
became a cradle of Nobel Prize winners, producing four more, including her
daughter Irène Joliot-Curie and her son-in-law, Frédéric Joliot-Curie.
World War I
During World War I, Skłodowska-Curie pushed for the use of mobile
radiography units, which came to be popularly known as petites Curies ("Little
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 radon. 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 Nobel Prize medals for the war
effort.
Post-war years
In 1921, Skłodowska-Curie toured the United States, 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 resources for her work. Her second American tour in 1929 succeeded
in equipping the Warsaw Radium Institute, founded in 1925 with her sister
Bronisława as director.
In her later years, Skłodowska-Curie headed the Pasteur Institute and a
radioactivity laboratory created for her by the University of Paris.
Skłodowska–Curie visited Poland a last time in the spring of 1934.[15]
Death
Only a couple of months later, Skłodowska-Curie died. Her death on July 4,
1934, at the Sancellemoz Sanatorium in Passy, in Haute-Savoie, eastern France,
was from aplastic anemia, almost certainly contracted from exposure to
radiation. The damaging effects of ionizing radiation were then not yet known,
and much of her work had been carried out in a shed without any 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 that the substances gave off in the dark.[citation needed]
She was interred at the cemetery in Sceaux, alongside her husband Pierre. Sixty
years later, in 1995, in honor of their achievements, the remains of both were
transferred to the Paris Panthéon. She became the first woman so honored.
Her laboratory is preserved at the Musée Curie.
Due to their levels of radioactivity, her papers from the 1890s (and even her
cookbook) are considered too dangerous to handle. They are kept in lead-lined
boxes; those who wish to consult them must wear protective clothing.[32]
On November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland a girl named Marja
Sklodowska was born, an event which went largely unnoticed, but this
child’s life and work was to one day have great significance for mankind.
Her father, Wladyslaw Sklodowski, a professor of physics and
mathematics, and her mother, Bronsitwa, who was a piano player and a
singer, instilled in her from a very early age, the importance of hard
work, perseverance, and a good education. The early loss of her sister
Zosia, to Tuberculosis, and her mother two years later made Marja lose
her faith in God, and believe firmly in Science.
In Russian-occupied Poland she completed her early education at the
age of 16, at the Russian lycée, where she was noted for her memory
powers, and won a gold medal. Being poor, she was forced to take a
break from her education, and took up jobs as a governess and tutor.
She used her savings to help educate Bronya, her elder sister, who was
studying in medical school, and later when Bronya became a doctor she
repaid Marja by financing her education at the Sorbonne in Paris. Here
she changed her name to the French equivalent Marie, and obtained
degrees both in Mathematics and Physics in 1893 and 1894.
During her studies at the Sorbonne, Marie met a French physicist called
Pierre Curie, a scientist who won acclaim for his work in different fields
like magnetism and piezoelectricity. On the 26th of July, 1895, Marie and
Pierre Curie were married and thus begun a partnership which was not
just based on love but also respect for each other's work. The money
received by them as a wedding gift, was spent in purchasing bicycles,
which they used to tour the country-side. Their marriage was blessed
with the addition of two girls to their family, Irene who was born in 1897,
and Eve, born in 1904.
Her maternal duties, however, did not keep Marie away from her work
and studies. She began to study for her Doctorate in Physics, and as
her thesis chose to study the newly discovered phenomenon
radioactivity. She was joined by Pierre and in 1898 they announced the
discovery of a new element which they named Polonium, after the
country of her origin, Poland. This was followed, a short while later, by
the announcement of the discovery of yet another element, Radium. In
order to obtain just one gram of Radium, tons of pitchblende had to be
processed. This was back-breaking work, performed in a broken down
shed, which had very little protection against the weather. The noted
German chemist, Wilhelm Ostwald, who wished to see the "laboratory"
where this pioneering work was carried out, was surprised at how using
such poor facilities, results of such great significance could be achieved.
In recognition of their work, the Curies shared the Nobel Prize in
Physics in 1903, for the research done on the phenomenon of
radioactivity, with Professor Henri Becquerel, who discovered
radioactivity. This made Marie Curie the first woman to receive this
coveted award. Their work until then had been financed by themselves,
leaving them in a state of permanent poverty. The Nobel Prize, and the
resultant fame and financial rewards, ensured that there was now
enough money to pursue further research. They published their findings
freely and refused to patent their discoveries, insisting that these should
be used for the benefit of mankind.
Even as their fame grew, tragedy struck the Curie family. The
phenomenon of radioactivity was new and its effects were unknown at
that time. The radioactive substances were handled with bare hands,
and no protective equipment or clothing were used. The Curies and their
colleagues did not know it was already beginning to affect them. Even to
this day, the notebooks used by the Curies to record their work, are
radioactive, and will continue to be so for a long time as the half life of
Radium is 1620 years. Anyone wishing to inspect these books at the
"Bibliothèque Nationale", has to sign a waiver absolving the authorities
of all responsibility. The Curies loved their work so much, and carried
the radioactive material in their pockets, or kept it by their bedside,
without realising the danger they were exposing themselves to. On April
19, 1906, weakened and not being able to react quickly, Pierre Curie
met with a road accident and died.
This calamity however did not deter Marie Curie. She continued to care
for and educate her children and at the same time pursued her scientific
work. She took up the post vacated by her husband, and became the
first woman to be appointed professor at the Sorbonne. Being Polish,
and a woman, she was discriminated against, and was unsuccessful in
her bid, in 1911, to be elected to the Academy of Science (l'Académie
des Sciences). In November of the same year, she was accused by the
press of having an affair with her colleague Paul Langevin, and causing
problems in his married life, a charge strongly denied by Marie Curie.
The year 1911, however, ended on a high note for her, when in
recognition of her work in discovering the new elements radium and
polonium, and for the isolation and the study of radium, and its
compounds, she received her second Nobel Prize, this time in
Chemistry. This made Marie Curie the first person, and still today the
only woman to have received two Nobel Prizes. The only others to have
received two Nobel Prizes are Bardeen, Linus Pauling, and Frederick
Sanger.
In addition to her scientific achievements, Marie Curie was a
humanitarian, who wished to use all her knowledge and research for the
good of mankind. To this end, in 1914, she helped found the Pasteur
Institute and the Radium Institute in Paris, whose laboratories are used
to conduct research that finds ways to use radiation, to diagnose and
treat cancer. During the first World War, accompanied by her daughter,
she went to the front where she helped to fit vans with X-Ray facilities.
She trained the X-Ray machine operators to provide a quick diagnosis
of shrapnel and bullet injuries at the front itself, thus saving several
lives.
After the war she used her fame and directed her efforts in raising funds
to build a hospital and research laboratory. She travelled to the United
States in 1921 for this purpose and met President Warren Harding, who
gave her 1 gram of radium, collected by American women. She now had
enough money and radium to pursue her work. She again visited the
United States and met with President Herbert Hoover in 1929.
However, her work with Radium and Polonium were beginning to take
their toll on her as they had done with her husband Pierre. Already she
was beginning to suffer dizziness, fevers, constant fatigue, and
problems with her hearing and eyesight. She suffered radiation burns on
her hands and finally on July 4, 1934, at the age of 67, Marie Curie died
of leukaemia caused by radiation exposure.
The parents of Marie Curie were both teachers and believed firmly in the
benefits of science. Marie Curie and her husband Pierre distinguished
themselves both separately and as a team. The daughter of Marie
Curie, Irene Joliot Curie, and her husband Frederic Joliot continued the
work started by her parents and discovered artificial radioactivity, and
paved the way for the discovery of the neutron by Sir James Chadwick.
Irène Joliot Curie and her husband Frederic Joliot, won a Nobel Prize in
Chemistry in 1935. This made Marie Curie and Irène Joliot Curie, the
first mother-daughter winners of Nobel Prizes. Marie Curie’s other
daughter, Eve Curie although not a scientist worked hard as special
adviser to the Secretary General of NATO. She also authored the
biography of Marie Curie, and also the book "Journey Among Warriors",
which recounts the experiences of her visits to the battle front during
World War II. Marie Curie’s grand-daughter, Dr. Helene Langevin-Joliot,
as Professor of Nuclear Physics and Chemistry at the University of
Paris also worked in the field of radioactivity.

After Marie Curie died she received several honours. The Radium
Institute was renamed as the Curie Institute. Several countries have
issued stamps in her honour and in appreciation of her work. Poland
and France have minted coins, which record for posterity the
contributions of Marie Curie. A unit of radioactivity, the Curie, which is
the activity of 1 gram of Radium, has been named after the Curies, and
equals 3.7x1010 disintegrations per second. (3.7x10 to the 10th. Power)
The element no 96 was named Curium, in her honour. Craters on the
Moon and on Mars, have been named after her, and NASA plans to
name a Mars Rover after her. Books have been written about her and
videos and movies produced regarding Marie Curie and her life,
including an award winning film in 1943, starring Greer Garson and
Walter Pidgeon called "Madame Curie".

The Panthéon holds the remains of famous personalities in France who

have contributed extensively to the service of the country and bears the
inscription "To the fatherland's great men, in gratitude". Before 1995, no
woman in France had been honoured here for her own work (See note
1). On April 20, 1995, President François Mitterrand, corrected this by
transferring the ashes of Marie and Pierre Curie from their original
resting place in Sceaux near Paris to the Pantheon. This made Marie
Curie, of Polish origin, the first woman to be thus honoured for her own
accomplishments, giving an entirely new meaning to the inscription.

The work of Marie Curie, was not just important for her discoveries of
new elements, but the process she used to isolate them, helped to
create a "stockpile" of a few grams of radioactive material, which future
scientists could use for further studies. As a result of her work X-Rays
are very common today, as is Carbon dating, radiotherapy, and other
medical applications for radiation. It is for no small reason that Marie
Curie is considered by most to be the greatest woman scientist of all
time. The world indeed owes a great debt to Marie Curie.

Note: The Pantheon already contained the remains of another woman,

Sophie Berthelot, who received this honour just because she was the
wife of the chemist Marcelin Berthelot, and not because she deserved it
in her own right.