Marie Curie

Marie Curie The Polish born innovative Scientist would be 147 years old on November 7th. She died on July 4, 1934 from overexposure to radiation, both from her experiments and from her work with X-ray machines. Born Maria Sklodowska on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland. Her parents were both teachers. Her father. Ladislas was a math and physics instructor. Worked as a tutor and governess for five years to save to enrol in the Sorbonne, Paris. Completed her master's degree in physics in 1893. Women's education advocates gave her a scholarship to stay and she earned another degree in mathematics in 1894. Met Pierre Curie in 1894. The pair discovered a new radioactive element in 1898. They named the polonium, after Marie's homeland. nent In 1898, she coined the termn "radioactive" after discovering and naming radium. In 1902, the Curies announced that they had produced a decigram of pure radium, demonstrating its existence as a unique chemical element. Marie's husband Pierre was killed when he was run over by a carriage in Paris in 1906. Her first daughter, Irene, won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for her work with aluminum and radiation. Marie had a second daughter named Eve. Eve wrote a biography of her mother's life. Accolades Marie Curie made history in 1903 when she became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in physics. In June 1903, Marie was the first woman in Europe to earn a doctorate in physics. Became the Sorbonne's first female professor in 1906. The Curie Institute in Paris, founded by Marie in 1921, is still a major cancer research facility. In 1911, she won her second Nobel Prize for chemistry. She was selected for her discovery of radium and polonium, and became the first scientist to win two Nobel Prizes. The 96th element curium on the Periodic Table of the Elements discovered in 1944 was named after the Curies. In 1995. Marie and Pierre's remains were interred in the Panthéon in Paris, the final resting place of France's greatest minds. Curie became the first and only woman to be laid to rest there. Marie Curie Quotes “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood." "I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor “A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale." easy." "I am one of those who think like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries." "Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas." References http://www.biography.com/people/marie-curie-9263538 http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/marie_curie.htm http://www.livescience.com/38907-marie-curie-facts-biography.html http://www.ducksters.com/biography/women_leaders/marie_curie.php homecareplus.ie HOME CARE PLUS trusted care at home