The First Woman To Receive A Nobel Prize
Marie Curie, shown here in this colorized photograph, was a brilliant woman who broke barriers for women in science. One of the fascinating things about this colorized image is the fact that the use of color seems to highlight the differences between laboratories when Curie was doing her ground-breaking work and today's modern facilities. In a time when female scientists were not taken seriously and few women earned advanced degrees, Marie Curie headed up the physics department at the famed Sorbonne, discovered radioactivity, identified unknown elements, and developed the X-ray for medical use.
Two-time Nobel Prize winner, Marie Curie. (https://www.reddit.com/r/ColorizedHistory/comments/5unpi2/marie_curie_the_first_woman_to_receive_a_nobel/)
She did all this, and more, while teaching science at the university and raising two daughters. As you can tell from this colorized image of her from 1912, Marie Curie was a determined scientist who rose to the top of a male-dominated field by earning not one, but two Nobel Prizes.
A Polish Transplant to Paris
Marie Curie as a young girl growing up in Poland. (wondersofphysics.com)
Marie Sklodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1867. Her father was a schoolteacher who tutored her in the sciences to enhance her general education. She joined a students’ revolutionary group and protested Russian control of parts of Poland. In 1891, she left Poland and headed to Paris to further her education at the Sorbonne. She earned advanced degrees -- the equivalent to master’s degrees -- in mathematics and physics.
A Physics Power Couple
Pierre and Marie Curie. (mariecurie.org.uk)
In 1894, Marie met Pierre Curie who was a physics professor and, later, the Head of the Physics Laboratory at the Sorbonne. Within a year, the couple married. They had their first daughter, Irene, in 1897, and another, Eve, in 1904. Just two years later, Pierre Curie was dead, leaving Marie to raise her daughters on her own. She showed her daughters that women can balance careers with motherhood. Her daughter Irene studied science like her mother and, in 1935, won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Eve Curie wrote and published the first biography on her mother in 1937. Her book was later turned into a movie. Pierre Curie was appointed the Head of Sorbonne’s Physics Department. Upon his death in 1906, Marie took over the lab and his position of Professor of General Physics. She was the first woman to achieve this position.
Marie Curie's Discoveries
Marie Curie in her lab. (newscientist.com)
Marie Curie worked closely with her husband, Pierre, and together, they discovered polonium and radium. She was intrigued by the work of Henri Becquerel, the physicist who discovered uranium, and built on his discoveries by doing her own experimentation of uranium. She learned that uranium emits energy rays and theorized that the energy was produced in the uranium’s atomic structure. Marie Curie coined the term “radioactive” and her discoveries created a whole new field of scientific study, atomic physics. In 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie’s research led to discover a previously unknown element that they named polonium, in honor of Marie’s home country of Poland. Later, Marie Curie learned how to isolate the radium from the radioactive particles. Her further studies of radium led her to conclude that radium had therapeutic properties. Throughout her life, she advocated for the use of radium in medical treatments. During World War I, she pushed for the use of portable X-ray machines for use in battlefield hospitals.
A Run-Down Lab
The Curies in their lab. (mariecurie.uk.org)
The colorized photograph of Marie Curie at the top of this article shows her in her new laboratory a half dozen years after her husband’s death. While it may look primitive by today’s standards, this lab was state-of-the-art in 1912. It must have felt luxurious to Marie Curie. During her marriage to Pierre, the couple worked out of a run-down shack with sparse equipment. In fact, it was so small and poorly equipped that a visiting German chemist thought the Curies were playing a joke on him. He later described the Curies’ lab as nothing more than a “potato shed”. Yet this was the place where the Curies made some of their most groundbreaking discoveries that propelled them toward the highest honor in the academic world.
Marie Curie and the Nobel Prize
Marie Curie won Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry. (kenyonlyceum.wordpress.com)
Marie Curie, together with her husband, Pierre, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903. In the misogynistic time period, Marie’s name was, at first, left off the nomination for the Nobel Prize. A member of the nomination committee, a professor of mathematics at Stockholm University College, was aware of Marie’s tremendous contributions and was dismayed that she was being overlooked because of her gender. This professor wrote a letter to Pierre Curie, tipping him off to the omission. He, in turn, penned a letter to the committee insisting that he and his wife be considered together, noting the key contributions Marie made. The committee agreed and when the couple was awarded the top prize in the field of physics in 1903, Marie Curie became the first woman to earn a Nobel Prize.
Nobel Prize, Part 2
Marie Curie continued her work while raising two daughters alone. (brainpickings.org)
Marie Curie carried on the research and experiments after the death of her husband and she proved to the scientific community that she wasn’t just riding on her husband’s coattails when she won the Nobel Prize. She was awarded her second Nobel Prize, this time in the field of chemistry, in 1911 for her work on radioactivity. Marie Curie was the first person in history – male or female – to earn two Nobel Prizes and the only person to receive Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. In addition, she was presented with numerous other awards, prizes, and honorary degrees. She earned a reputation as one of the top scientists in the world and was respected around the world.
The Death of Marie Curie
Marie Curie blazed a trail for women in science. (aqrinternational.co.uk)
When Marie Curie died on July 4, 1934, her cause of death was listed as aplastic anemia, a condition caused from prolonged exposure to radiation. She believed strongly that radiation could be a benefit to the medical community and help cure people, yet she also discovered that radiation could be lethal. She left behind a legacy of being one of the key scientists of the modern era. She was also a role model who shattered the glass ceiling and proved that women could make important scientific advances. As we can see in this colorized photograph of Marie Curie, she was a brilliant and innovative woman who made her mark in a man’s world.
