Marie Curie1867 - 1934

Nobel prize in Physics, 1903(jointly with Pierre Curie and

Henri Becquerel)

Nobel prize in Chemistry, 1911

Presented by Penny J. Gilmer, Ph. D, D. Sc.Ed.

Professor EmeritaFlorida State University

January 18, 2011

International Year of Chemistry Networking Breakfast, Florida State University 1

Manya Sklodowska’s childhood

• Parents were teachers• Birthplace: Warsaw, Poland• Three sisters & one brother• Manya’s mother died of TB• Oldest sister, Zosia, died of

typhus• Manya, a brilliant, serious

student

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Young adulthood as governess

• Decided to work to earn money so Bronya could move to Paris and study medicine

• At 18, became a governess in a home in country

• Bronya promised to pay for Marie to come to Paris, once she graduated

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Marie Sklodowska to Paris to study• Photo taken (Marie on left)

before she moved to Paris at age 25, to study at the Sorbonne

• Paris was free while Poland was under Russian rule

• Student in the Faculty of Science at last, taking physics & mathematics

• Initially, lived with sister, Bronya, and brother-in-law, then moved to cold flat by self, in Latin Quarter to study

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Meets French physicist Pierre Curie• Visiting professor from Germany

introduced Marie to Pierre who worked at another university and had room for Marie to do experiments

• He gave her copy of article of his, “On symmetry in physical phenomena: Symmetry of an electric field and of a magnetic field”

• He wrote her: “…of her patriotic dream, our humanitarian dream, and our scientific dream”

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Married at 27, and first child, Irene, at 29

• Still to work on her doctoral work

• Henri Becquerel, her major professor, followed up on Roentgen’s discovery of X-rays—Becquerel found spontaneous emission of rays from uranium

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Marie used Pierre’s quartz piezoélectrique to measure radioactivity

• Measured power of “power of ionization” using equipment that Pierre and his brother, had discovered earlier

• Wondered about source of the energy and realized it came from the atom

• Coined term “radioactivity”• Studied “all known chemical

bodies”; new elements more radioactive than U or Th; discovered polonium and radium

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Periodic table

• Marie discovered radioactivity in…– Thorium (independently discovered by another too)– Polonium (named after native country, Poland)– Radium (radiates light, so radioactive)

• Po and Ra, new elements, discovered in pitchblende, using radioactivity emitted to follow their purification

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Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903

“The prize was divided, one half being awarded to: • ANTOINE HENRI BECQUEREL in recognition of the

extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity

the other half jointly to: • PIERRE CURIE and MARIE CURIE (SKLODOWSKA), in

recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel.”

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Few years after Nobel…

• Had second child, Eve, in 1904

• Pierre was made a professor

• Pierre died tragically in accident, 1906

• After his death, although very difficult, Marie assumed his professorship

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Photo after her 2nd Nobel prize• In 1911, received the 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”

• She was first woman to receive a Nobel prize, and first person to receive two Nobel prizes

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Another highlight of Marie’s life• During WWI she brought

X-rays to the field to treat soldiers

• She taught her older daughter, Irene, then 18, about radiation during WWI; in 1935, Irene received Nobel prize in Chemistry with her husband, Frederic Joliet-Curie, for discovering artificial radioactivity

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Book references• Madame Curie, by Eve

Curie (1937)• Scientists in Power, by

Spencer Weart (1979)• Marie Curie, by Susan

Quinn (1995) • Creative Couples in the

Sciences, by Helena Pycior, Nancy Slack, and Pnina Abir-Am (1996)

• Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie, by Barbara Goldsmith (2005)

• The Curies: A Biography of the Most Controversial Family in Science, by Denis Brian (2005)

• The Madame Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science, by Julie Des Jardins (2010)

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Upcoming Symposium on Marie Curie• At the AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington,

DC on February 18, 2011, Penny Gilmer has organized a symposium honoring Marie Curie, with three excellent speakers:– Patricia Baisden: Marie Curie, the Premier Chemist, Co-Discoverer of

Radiation and Radioactivity

– Pnina Abir-Am : Historical Perspectives on the Public Memory of Marie S. Curie (2011, 1911)

– Julie Des Jardins :The Marie Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science

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