MARIE CURIE

The Woman Who Changed The

Course Of Science

Sharu Jacob
B.Ed, Physical Science
Mangalam College of Education
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 Introduction
Born : 7th November, 1867

Work : on radioactivity

Discoveries : Radium and Polonium

Nobel prizes : 1903- in Physics

1911- in Chemistry

Death : 1934
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 Education

She attended the boarding school of J. Sikorska, from

which she graduated on 12 June 1883 with a gold medal
Later she joined the clandestine Flying University, a
Polish patriotic institution of higher learning
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 In late 1891, she left Poland for France, where she
studied of physics, chemistry, and mathematics

She had begun her scientific career in Paris with an

investigation of the magnetic properties of various
steels, commissioned by the society for the
encouragement of national industry

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Pierre Curie
In Paris, Marie met a young
physicist, Pierre Curie

Their mutual passion for science

brought them increasingly closer
and they began to develop feelings
for one another

They got married on 26th July

1895 in the south of Paris

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They had two daughters, Irene and Eve
Pierre Curie died run over by a horse-
drawn wagon in 1906
They had two daughters,
Irene and Eve

Pierre Curie died run

over by a horse-drawn
wagon in 1906

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Professor at Sorbonne
After Pierre died, Marie Curie was
appointed to take over the
professorship at Sorbonne and to
lecture in Pierres place. Marie
remembered a statement that Pierre
once said when he was ill:
Whatever happens, even if you feel
like a body that is deprived of its
soul, it is our duty to continue the
work, despite everything!

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 Marie Curies research
Marie began her pioneering work with invisible rays
given off by Uranium

She noticed that samples of a mineral called

Pitchblende, which contains Uranium was more
radioactive than the pure Uranium

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 She concluded that the very large readings she was
getting could not be caused by Uranium alone, there
was something else in Pitchblende

Eventually, in 1898, she extracted a black powder 330

times more radioactive than Uranium, which she called
Polonium

On further investigation, she found another new

element, far more radioactive than Polonium, which
she called Radium

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 Nobel Prizes
In 1903, the Curies and Henri Bequerel received the
Nobel Prize in Physics for their combined research and
discoveries on radioactivity

The Swedish Nobel committee announced Marie Curie

her second Nobel Prize in 1911, this time in Chemistry
for creating a means of measuring radioactivity

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 Contributions
Two new elements- Polonium and Radium

Coined the term Radioactivity

Developed new techniques to isolate Radium from

pitchblende

Found medical applications of Radium

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 Marie Curies many firsts:
The first woman with degree in Physics
The first woman to obtain a Nobel Prize
The first woman to obtain a chair at the Sorbonne
The first scientist to obtain two Nobel Prizes
The first woman who has been laid to rest under the
famous dome of the Pantheon in Paris for her own
merits

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