Editing Marie Curie (section)

== Life and career ==
=== Early years ===
[[File:Sklodowski Family Wladyslaw and his daughters Maria Bronislawa Helena.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Władysław Skłodowski and daughters (from left) Maria, [[Bronisława Dłuska|Bronisława]], and [[Helena Skłodowska-Szalay|Helena]], 1890]]
Maria Skłodowska was born in [[Warsaw]], in [[Congress Poland]] in the [[Russian Empire]], on 7 November 1867, the fifth and youngest child of well-known teachers<ref name="Nobel1" /> Bronisława, ''née'' Boguska, and [[Władysław Skłodowski]].<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /> The elder siblings of Maria (nicknamed ''Mania'') were Zofia (born 1862, nicknamed ''Zosia''), {{ill|Józef Skłodowski (doctor)|pl|Józef Skłodowski (lekarz)|lt=Józef}} (born 1863, nicknamed ''Józio''), [[Bronisława Dłuska|Bronisława]] (born 1865, nicknamed ''Bronia'') and [[Helena Skłodowska-Szalay|Helena]] (born 1866, nicknamed ''Hela'').<ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)" /><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era |last=Nelson |first=Craig |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4516-6045-6 |page=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vTcGAQAAQBAJ&q=bronislawa%20bronya&pg=PA18 |access-date=24 January 2016}}</ref>

On both the [[Skłodowski family|paternal]] and maternal sides, the family had lost their property and fortunes through patriotic involvements in Polish national uprisings aimed at restoring Poland's independence (the most recent had been the [[January Uprising|January Uprising of 1863–1865]]).<ref name="Wierzewski2008" /> This condemned the subsequent generation, including Maria and her elder siblings, to a difficult struggle to get ahead in life.<ref name="Wierzewski2008" /> Maria's paternal grandfather, [[Józef Skłodowski]] had been principal of the [[Lublin]] primary school attended by [[Bolesław Prus#Early years|Bolesław Prus]],<ref>[[:pl:Monika Piątkowska|Monika Piątkowska]], ''Prus:  Śledztwo biograficzne'' (Prus:  A Biographical Investigation), [[Kraków]], [[Wydawnictwo Znak]], 2017, {{ISBN|978-83-240-4543-3}}, pp. 49–50.</ref> who became a leading figure in Polish literature.<ref name="Miłosz1983" />

[[Władysław Skłodowski]] taught [[mathematics]] and [[physics]], subjects that Maria was to pursue, and was also director of two Warsaw ''[[gymnasium (school)|gymnasia]]'' (secondary schools) for boys. After Russian authorities eliminated laboratory instruction from the Polish schools, he brought much of the laboratory equipment home and instructed his children in its use.<ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)" /> He was eventually fired by his Russian supervisors for pro-Polish sentiments and forced to take lower-paying posts; the family also lost money on a bad investment and eventually chose to supplement their income by lodging boys in the house.<ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)" /> Maria's mother Bronisława operated a prestigious Warsaw boarding school for girls; she resigned from the position after Maria was born.<ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)" /> She died of [[tuberculosis]] in May 1878, when Maria was ten years old.<ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)" /> Less than three years earlier, Maria's oldest sibling, Zofia, had died of [[typhus]] contracted from a boarder.<ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)" /> Maria's father was an [[atheist]], her mother a devout Catholic.<ref name="Barker2011" /> The deaths of Maria's mother and sister caused her to give up Catholicism and become agnostic.<ref name="Reid1974a" />
[[File:Maria Sklodowska et sa sœur Bronislawa en 1886.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Maria (left) and sister [[Bronisława Dłuska|Bronisława]], {{circa|1886}}]]
When she was ten years old, Maria began attending J. Sikorska's boarding school; next she attended a [[gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] (secondary school) for girls, from which she graduated on 12 June 1883 with a gold medal.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /> After a collapse, possibly due to depression,<ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)" /> she spent the following year in the countryside with relatives of her father, and the next year with her father in Warsaw, where she did some tutoring.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /> Unable to enrol in a regular institution of higher education because she was a woman, she and her sister Bronisława became involved with the clandestine [[Flying University]] (sometimes translated as "Floating University"), a Polish patriotic institution of higher learning that admitted women students.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /><ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)" />
[[File:Krakowskie Przedmiescie, Warsaw.JPG|thumb|upright=0.9|''[[Krakowskie Przedmiescie]]'' 66, [[Warsaw]], where Maria did her first scientific work, in 1890–1891]]
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.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /><ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)1" /> In connection with this, Maria took a position first as a home tutor in Warsaw, then for two years as a [[governess]] in [[Szczuki, Masovian Voivodeship|Szczuki]] with a landed family, the Żorawskis, who were relatives of her father.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /><ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)1" /> While working for the latter family, she fell in love with their son, [[Kazimierz Żorawski]], a future eminent mathematician.<ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)1" /> His parents rejected the idea of his marrying the penniless relative, and Kazimierz was unable to oppose them.<ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)1" /> Maria's loss of the relationship with Żorawski was tragic for both. He soon earned a doctorate and pursued an academic career as a mathematician, becoming a professor and [[Rector (academia)|rector]] of [[Kraków University]]. Still, as an old man and a mathematics professor at the [[Warsaw Polytechnic]], he would sit contemplatively before the statue of Maria Skłodowska that had been erected in 1935 before the [[Curie Institute, Warsaw|Radium Institute]], which she had founded in 1932.<ref name="Wierzewski2008" /><ref name="Reid1974c" />

At the beginning of 1890, Bronisława—who a few months earlier had married [[Kazimierz Dłuski]], a Polish physician and social and political activist—invited Maria to join them in Paris. Maria declined because she could not afford the university tuition; it would take her a year and a half longer to gather the necessary funds.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /> She was helped by her father, who was able to secure a more lucrative position again.<ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)1" /> All that time she continued to educate herself, reading books, exchanging letters, and being tutored herself.<ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)1" /> In early 1889 she returned home to her father in Warsaw.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /> She continued working as a governess and remained there until late 1891.<ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)1" /> She tutored, studied at the Flying University, and began her practical scientific training (1890–1891) in a chemistry laboratory at the [[Museum of Industry and Agriculture]] at ''[[Krakowskie Przedmieście]]'' 66, near Warsaw's [[Warsaw Old Town|Old Town]].<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /><ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)" /><ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)1" /> The laboratory was run by her cousin [[Józef Boguski]], who had been an assistant in [[Saint Petersburg]] to the Russian chemist [[Dmitri Mendeleyev]].<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /><ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)1" /><ref name="Reid1974k" />

=== Life in Paris ===
In late 1891, she left Poland for France.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /> In Paris, Maria (or Marie, as she would be known in France) briefly found shelter with her sister and brother-in-law before renting a [[garret]] closer to the university, in the [[Latin Quarter]], and proceeding with her studies of physics, chemistry, and mathematics at the [[University of Paris]], where she enrolled in late 1891.<ref name="Reid1974d" /><ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris" /> She subsisted on her meagre resources, keeping herself warm during cold winters by wearing all the clothes she had. She focused so hard on her studies that she sometimes forgot to eat.<ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris" /> Skłodowska studied during the day and tutored evenings, barely earning her keep. In 1893, she was awarded a degree in physics and began work in an industrial laboratory of [[Gabriel Lippmann]]. Meanwhile, she continued studying at the University of Paris and with the aid of a fellowship she was able to earn a second degree in 1894.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /><ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris" />{{efn|Sources vary concerning the field of her second degree. [[Tadeusz Estreicher]], in the 1938 ''[[Polish Biographical Dictionary]]'' entry, writes that, while many sources state she earned a degree in mathematics, this is incorrect, and that her second degree was in chemistry.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" />}}

Skłodowska 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]].<ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris" /> That same year, [[Pierre Curie]] entered her life: it was their mutual interest in [[natural sciences]] that drew them together.<ref name="Williams1986b p331" /> Pierre Curie was an instructor at [[The City of Paris Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution]] (ESPCI Paris).<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /> They were introduced by Polish physicist [[Józef Wierusz-Kowalski]], who had learned that she was looking for a larger laboratory space, something that Wierusz-Kowalski thought Pierre could access.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /><ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris" /> Though Curie did not have a large laboratory, he was able to find some space for Skłodowska where she was able to begin work.<ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris" />
[[File:Pierre Curie et Marie Sklodowska Curie 1895.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|[[Pierre Curie]] and Marie Skłodowska-Curie, 1895]]
Their mutual passion for science brought them increasingly closer, and they began to develop feelings for one another.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /><ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris" /> Eventually, Pierre proposed marriage, but at first Skłodowska did not accept as she was still planning to go back to her native country. Curie, however, declared that he was ready to move with her to Poland, even if it meant being reduced to teaching French.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /> Meanwhile, for the 1894 summer break, Skłodowska returned to Warsaw, where she visited her family.<ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris" /> She was still labouring under the illusion that she would be able to work in her chosen field in Poland, but she was denied a place at [[Kraków University]] because of [[sexism in academia]].<ref name="Wierzewski2008" /> A letter from Pierre convinced her to return to Paris to pursue a PhD.<ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris" /> At Skłodowska's insistence, Curie had written up his research on [[magnetism]] and received his own doctorate in March 1895; he was also promoted to professor at the School.<ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris" /> A contemporary quip would call Skłodowska "Pierre's biggest discovery".<ref name="Wierzewski2008" />

On 26 July 1895, they were married in [[Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine|Sceaux]];<ref>{{cite web |url=http://janinetissot.fdaf.org/jt_curie_marie.htm |title=Marie Curie |author=les Actus DN |access-date=24 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102102143/http://janinetissot.fdaf.org/jt_curie_marie.htm |archive-date=2 November 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> neither wanted a religious service.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /><ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris" /> Curie's dark blue outfit, worn instead of a bridal gown, would serve her for many years as a laboratory outfit.<ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris" /> They shared two pastimes: long bicycle trips and journeys abroad, which brought them even closer. In Pierre, Marie had found a new love, a partner, and a scientific collaborator on whom she could depend.<ref name="Wierzewski2008" />

=== New elements ===
[[File:Pierre and Marie Curie.jpg|thumb|Pierre and Marie Curie in the laboratory, {{circa|1904|lk=no}}]]
In 1895, [[Wilhelm Röntgen]] discovered the existence of [[X-ray]]s, though the mechanism behind their production was not yet understood.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity" /> In 1896, [[Henri Becquerel]] discovered that [[uranium]] salts emitted rays that resembled X-rays in their penetrating power.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity" /> He demonstrated that this radiation, unlike [[phosphorescence]], did not depend on an external source of energy but seemed to arise spontaneously from uranium itself. Influenced by these two important discoveries, Curie decided to look into uranium rays as a possible field of research for a thesis.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /><ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity" />

She used an innovative technique to investigate samples. Fifteen years earlier, her husband and his brother had developed a version of the [[electrometer]], a sensitive device for measuring electric charge.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity" /> Using her husband's electrometer, she discovered that uranium rays caused the air around a sample to conduct electricity. Using this technique, her first result was the finding that the activity of the uranium compounds depended only on the quantity of uranium present.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity" /> She hypothesized that the radiation was not the outcome of some interaction of molecules but must come from the atom itself.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity" /> This hypothesis was an important step in disproving the assumption that atoms were indivisible.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity" /><ref name="Reid1974e" />

In 1897, her daughter [[Irène Joliot-Curie|Irène]] was born. To support her family, Curie began teaching at the {{Lang|fr|[[École normale supérieure]]|italic=no}}.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /> The Curies did not have a dedicated laboratory; most of their research was carried out in a converted shed next to ESPCI.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /> The shed, formerly a medical school dissecting room, was poorly ventilated and not even waterproof.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 2" /> They were unaware of the deleterious effects of [[Radioactive contamination|radiation exposure]] attendant on their continued unprotected work with radioactive substances. ESPCI did not sponsor her research, but she received subsidies from metallurgical and mining companies and from various organisations and governments.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /><ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 2" /><ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris 2" />

Curie's systematic studies included two uranium minerals, [[pitchblende]] and [[torbernite]] (also known as chalcolite).<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 2" /> 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 quantity of uranium to its activity were correct, then these two minerals must contain small quantities of another substance that was far more active than uranium.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 2" /><ref name="Reid1974f" /> She began a systematic search for additional substances that emit radiation, and by 1898 she discovered that the element [[thorium]] was also radioactive.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity" /> Pierre Curie was increasingly intrigued by her work. By mid-1898 he was so invested in it that he decided to drop his work on crystals and to join her.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /><ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 2" />

{{blockquote|The [research] 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.<ref name="Reid1974g" />}}
[[File:Marie Pierre Irene Curie.jpg|thumb|Pierre, [[Irène Joliot-Curie|Irène]], and Marie Curie, {{circa|1902|lk=no}}]]
She was acutely aware of the importance of promptly publishing her discoveries and thus establishing her [[scientific priority|priority]]. Had not Becquerel, two years earlier, presented his discovery to the [[French Academy of 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]]. Curie chose the same rapid means of publication. Women were not eligible for membership of the Académie des Sciences until 1979, so that all her presentations had to be made for her by male colleagues;<ref name="Spinney2024">{{cite news |last=Spinney |first=Laura |title=The Elements of Marie Curie by Dava Sobel review – the great scientist who created her own school |newspaper=The Guardian |date=11 November 2024 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/nov/11/the-elements-of-marie-curie-by-dava-sobel-review-the-great-scientist-who-created-her-own-school}}</ref> her paper, giving a brief and simple account of her work, was presented for her to the {{langn|fr|Académie}} on 12 April 1898 by her former professor, [[Gabriel Lippmann]].<ref name="Reid1974h" /> Even so, just as Thompson had been beaten by Becquerel, so 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 Carl Schmidt]] had published his own finding in Berlin.<ref name="Reid1974b" />
At that time, no one else in the world of physics had noticed what Curie recorded in a sentence of her paper, describing how much greater were the activities of pitchblende and chalcolite than that of 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 later would recall how she felt "a passionate desire to verify this hypothesis as rapidly as possible."<ref name="Reid1974b" /> On 14 April 1898, the Curies optimistically weighed out a 100-gram sample of pitchblende and ground it with a pestle and mortar. They did not realise at the time that what they were searching for was present in such minute quantities that they would eventually have to process tonnes of the ore.<ref name="Reid1974b" />

In July 1898, Curie and her husband published a joint paper announcing the existence of an element they named "[[polonium]]", in honour of her native Poland,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Curie |first1=P. |last2=Curie |first2=M. |title=Sur une substance nouvelle radio-active, contenue dans la pechblende |trans-title=On a new radioactive substance contained in pitchblende |language=fr |journal=Comptes rendus |volume=127 |pages=175–178 |date=1898 |url=https://www.academie-sciences.fr/pdf/dossiers/Curie/Curie_pdf/CR1898_p175_178.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.org/details/surunesubstancen127curi/page/177/mode/1up?q=polonium |archive-date=23 July 2013 |quote=Si l'existence de ce nouveau métal se confirme, nous proposons de l'appeler polonium, du nom du pays d'origine de l'un de nous. |trans-quote=If the existence of this new metal is confirmed, we propose to call it polonium, after the country of origin of one of us.}} [http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/curiespo.html English translation.]</ref> which would for another twenty years remain [[partitions of Poland|partitioned among three empires]] ([[Russian Empire|Russia]], [[Austrian Empire|Austria]], and [[German Empire|Prussia]]).<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /> On 26 December 1898, the Curies announced the existence of a second element, which they named "[[radium]]", from the Latin word for 'ray'.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /><ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 2" /><ref name="LawrenceBerkeleyNationalLaboratory2000" /><ref>{{cite journal |year=1898 |title=Sur une nouvelle substance fortement radio-active, contenue dans la pechblende |trans-title=On a new, strongly radioactive substance contained in pitchblende) |journal=Comptes rendus |volume=127 |pages=1215–1217 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3731197#page/813/mode/1up |last1=Curie |first1=Pierre |last2=Curie |first2=Marie |last3=Bémont |first3=Gustave |quote=Les diverses raisons que nous venons d’énumérer nous portent à croire que la nouvelle substance radioactive renferme un élément nouveau, auquel nous proposons de donner le nom de radium. |trans-quote=The various reasons we have just listed lead us to believe that the new radioactive substance contains a new element, which we propose to give the name radium. |language=fr}}   [http://www.aip.org/history/curie/discover.htm English translation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090806083923/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/discover.htm |date=6 August 2009 }}</ref> In the course of their research, they also coined the word "[[radioactivity]]".<ref name="Estreicher1938a" />
[[File:Pierre Curie (1859-1906) and Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934), c. 1903 (4405627519).jpg|thumb|Pierre and Marie Curie, {{circa|1903|lk=no}}]]
To prove their discoveries beyond any doubt, the Curies sought to isolate polonium and radium in pure form.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 2" /> Pitchblende is a complex mineral; 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.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 2" /> Radium, however, 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.<ref name="Williams1986 pp331–332" /> The Curies undertook the arduous task of separating out radium salt by differential [[crystallisation]]. From a tonne of pitchblende, one-tenth of a gram of [[radium chloride]] was separated in 1902. In 1910, she isolated pure radium metal.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 2" /><ref name="Williams1986 p332" /> She never succeeded in isolating polonium, which has a [[half-life]] of only 138 days.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 2" />

Between 1898 and 1902, the Curies published, jointly or separately, a total of 32 scientific papers, including one that announced that, when exposed to [[radium]], diseased, [[tumor|tumour-forming]] cells were destroyed faster than healthy cells.<ref>"Marie Sklodowska Curie", ''Encyclopedia of World Biography'', 2nd ed., vol. 4, Detroit, Gale, 2004, pp. 339–41. [[Gale Virtual Reference Library]]. Web. 3 June 2013.</ref>

In 1900, Curie became the first woman faculty member at the École Normale Supérieure and her husband joined the faculty of the University of Paris.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 3" /><ref name="Quinn1996" /> In 1902 she visited Poland on the occasion of her father's death.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" />

In June 1903, supervised by [[Gabriel Lippmann]], Curie was awarded her doctorate from the [[University of Paris]].<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /><ref name="Mould1998" /> That month the couple were invited to the [[Royal Institution]] in London to give a speech on radioactivity; being a woman, she was prevented from speaking, and Pierre Curie alone was allowed to.<ref name="Marie Curie Rec and Dis" /> Meanwhile, a new industry began developing, based on radium.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 3" /> The Curies did not patent their discovery and benefited little from this increasingly profitable business.<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 2" /><ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 3" />

=== Nobel Prizes ===
[[File:Marie Curie 1903.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|alt=Polnische Frauen, Polnische Frau, Polish women, Polish Woman|1903 Nobel Prize portrait]]
[[File:Nobel Pierre et Marie Curie 1.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.0|1903 Nobel Prize diploma]]
[[File:Mme P Curie P1300452 corrected2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|Marie Curie's business card as professor at the Faculty of Sciences]]
In December 1903 the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] awarded Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, and Henri Becquerel the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.espci.fr/en/espci-paris/prestige-82/ |title=ESPCI Paris: Prestige |website=www.espci.fr |access-date=26 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170926100024/https://www.espci.fr/en/espci-paris/prestige-82/ |archive-date=26 September 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref> "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the [[ionizing radiation|radiation]] phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /> At first the committee had intended to honour only Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, but a committee member and advocate for women scientists, Swedish mathematician [[Magnus Gösta Mittag-Leffler]], alerted Pierre to the situation, and after his complaint, Marie's name was added to the nomination.<ref name="Marie Curie Rec and Dis2" /> Marie Curie was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" />

Curie and her husband declined to go to [[Stockholm]] to receive the prize in person; they were too busy with their work, and Pierre Curie, who disliked public ceremonies, was feeling increasingly ill.<ref name="Marie Curie Rec and Dis" /><ref name="Marie Curie Rec and Dis2" /> As Nobel laureates were required to deliver a lecture, the Curies finally undertook the trip in 1905.<ref name="Marie Curie Rec and Dis2" /> The award money allowed the Curies to hire their first laboratory assistant.<ref name="Marie Curie Rec and Dis2" /> Following the award of the Nobel Prize, and galvanised by an offer from the [[University of Geneva]], which offered Pierre Curie a position, the University of Paris gave him a professorship and the chair of physics, although the Curies still did not have a proper laboratory.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /><ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 3" /><ref name="Quinn1996" /> Upon Pierre Curie's complaint, the University of Paris relented and agreed to furnish a new laboratory, but it would not be ready until 1906.<ref name="Marie Curie Rec and Dis2" />

[[File:Pierre and Marie Curie Vanity Fair 1904-12-22.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|Caricature of Marie and Pierre Curie, captioned "Radium", in the London magazine ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', December 1904]]
In December 1904, Curie gave birth to their second daughter, [[Ève Curie|Ève]].<ref name="Marie Curie Rec and Dis2" /> She hired Polish governesses to teach her daughters her native language, and sent or took them on visits to Poland.<ref name="Goldsmith2005a" />

On 19 April 1906, Pierre Curie was killed in a road 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 and killing him instantly.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /><ref name="The New York Times1906" /> Curie was devastated by her husband's death.<ref name="Marie Curie Tr and Ad" /> On 13 May 1906 the physics department of the University of Paris decided to retain the chair that had been created for her late husband and offer it to Marie. She accepted it, hoping to create a world-class laboratory as a tribute to her husband Pierre.<ref name="Marie Curie Tr and Ad" /><ref name="Marie Curie Tr and Ad2" /> She was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" />

Curie's quest to create a new laboratory did not end with the University of Paris, however. In her later years, she headed the Radium Institute ({{lang|fr|Institut du radium}}, now [[Curie Institute (Paris)|Curie Institute]], {{lang|fr|Institut Curie}}), a radioactivity laboratory created for her by the [[Pasteur Institute]] and the [[University of Paris]].<ref name="Marie Curie Tr and Ad2" /> The initiative for creating the Radium Institute had come in 1909 from [[Pierre Paul Émile Roux]], director of the Pasteur Institute, who had been disappointed that the University of Paris was not giving Curie a proper laboratory and had suggested that she move to the Pasteur Institute.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /><ref name="Estreicher1938c" /> Only then, with the threat of Curie leaving, did the University of Paris relent, and eventually the Curie Pavilion became a joint initiative of the University of Paris and the Pasteur Institute.<ref name="Estreicher1938c" />

[[File:1911 Solvay conference.jpg|thumb|upright=1.9|At the first [[Solvay Conference]] (1911), Curie (seated second from right) confers with [[Henri Poincaré]]. Standing nearby are [[Ernest Rutherford|Rutherford]] (fourth from right), [[Einstein]] (second from right), and [[Paul Langevin]] (far right).]]

In 1910 Curie succeeded in isolating radium; she also defined an international standard for radioactive emissions that was eventually named for her and Pierre: the [[Curie (unit)|curie]].<ref name="Marie Curie Tr and Ad2" /> Nevertheless, in 1911 the [[French Academy of Sciences]] failed, by one<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /> or two votes,<ref name="Marie Curie Sc and Rec" /> to elect her to membership in the academy. Elected instead was [[Édouard Branly]], an inventor who had helped [[Guglielmo Marconi]] develop the [[wireless telegraph]].<ref name="Goldsmith2005b" /> It was only over half a century later, in 1962, that a doctoral student of Curie's, [[Marguerite Perey]], became the first woman elected to membership in the academy.

Despite Curie's fame as a scientist working for France, the public's attitude tended toward [[xenophobia]]—the same that had led to the [[Dreyfus affair]]—which also fuelled false speculation that Curie was Jewish.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /><ref name="Marie Curie Sc and Rec" /> During the French Academy of Sciences elections, she was vilified by the right-wing press as a foreigner and atheist.<ref name="Marie Curie Sc and Rec" /> Her daughter later remarked on the French press's hypocrisy in portraying Curie as an unworthy foreigner when she was nominated for a French honour, but portraying her as a French heroine when she received foreign honours such as her Nobel Prizes.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" />

In 1911, it was revealed that Curie was involved in a year-long affair with physicist [[Paul Langevin]], a former student of Pierre Curie's,<ref name="Reid1974j" /> a married man who was estranged from his wife.<ref name="Marie Curie Sc and Rec" /> This resulted in a press scandal that was exploited by her academic opponents. Curie (then in her mid-40s) was five years older than Langevin and was misrepresented in the tabloids as a foreign Jewish home-wrecker.<ref name="Goldsmith2005c" /> When the scandal broke, she was away at a conference in Belgium; on her return, she found an angry mob in front of her house and had to seek refuge, with her daughters, in the home of her friend [[Camille Marbo]].<ref name="Marie Curie Sc and Rec" />

[[File:Marie Skłodowska-Curie's Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|1911 Nobel Prize diploma]]

International recognition for her work had been growing to new heights, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, overcoming opposition prompted by the Langevin scandal, honoured her a second time, with the 1911 [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]].<ref name="Wierzewski2008" /> This award was "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."<ref name="Marie Curie Sc and Rec2" /> Because of the negative publicity due to her affair with Langevin, the chair of the [[Nobel committee]], [[Svante Arrhenius]], attempted to prevent her attendance at the official ceremony for her Nobel Prize in Chemistry, citing her questionable moral standing. Curie replied that she would be present at the ceremony, because "the prize has been given to her for her discovery of polonium and radium" and that "there is no relation between her scientific work and the facts of her private life".

She was the first person to win or share two Nobel Prizes, and remains alone with [[Linus Pauling]] as Nobel laureates in two fields each. A delegation of celebrated Polish men of learning, headed by novelist [[Henryk Sienkiewicz]], encouraged her to return to Poland and continue her research in her native country.<ref name="Wierzewski2008" /> Curie's second Nobel Prize enabled her to persuade the French government to support the Radium Institute, built in 1914, where research was conducted in chemistry, physics, and medicine.<ref name="Estreicher1938c" /> A month after accepting her 1911 Nobel Prize, she was hospitalised with depression and a kidney ailment. For most of 1912, she avoided public life but did spend time in England with her friend and fellow physicist [[Hertha Ayrton]]. She returned to her laboratory only in December, after a break of about 14 months.<ref name="Marie Curie Sc and Rec2" />

In 1912 the [[Warsaw Scientific Society]] offered her the directorship of a new laboratory in Warsaw but she declined, focusing on the developing Radium Institute to be completed in August 1914, and on a new street named Rue Pierre-Curie (today rue Pierre-et-Marie-Curie).<ref name="Estreicher1938c" /><ref name="Marie Curie Sc and Rec2" /> She was appointed director of the Curie Laboratory in the Radium Institute of the University of Paris, founded in 1914.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/marie-curie/biographical/ |title=Marie Curie-biographical |year=2014 |website=Nobel Prize.org |access-date=16 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317165237/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-bio.html |archive-date=17 March 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> She visited Poland in 1913 and was welcomed in Warsaw but the visit was mostly ignored by the Russian authorities. The institute's development was interrupted by the [[First World War]], as most researchers were drafted into the [[French Army]]; it fully resumed its activities after the war, in 1919.<ref name="Estreicher1938c" /><ref name="Marie Curie Sc and Rec2" /><ref name="Marie Curie War" />

=== World War I ===
[[File:Marie Curie - Mobile X-Ray-Unit.jpg|thumb|Curie in a mobile X-ray vehicle, {{circa|1915|lk=no}}|alt=]]

During [[World War I]], Curie recognised that wounded soldiers were best served if operated upon as soon as possible.<ref name="Coppes-Zantinga1998">{{cite journal |title=Marie Curie's contributions to radiology during World War I |year=1998 |last1=Coppes-Zantinga |first1=Arty R. |last2=Coppes |first2=Max J. |journal=Medical and Pediatric Oncology |volume=31 |issue=6 |pages=541–543 |pmid=9835914 |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1096-911X(199812)31:6<541::AID-MPO19>3.0.CO;2-0}}</ref> She saw a need for field radiological centres near the front lines to assist battlefield surgeons,<ref name="Marie Curie War" /> including to obviate amputations when in fact limbs could be saved.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-film-radioactive-shows-how-marie-curie-was-a-woman-of-the-future/ |title=The Film ''Radioactive'' Shows How Marie Curie Was a 'Woman of the Future' |last=Russell |first=Cristine |date=9 August 2020 |magazine=[[Scientific American]] |access-date=24 October 2020 |archive-date=11 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211003554/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-film-radioactive-shows-how-marie-curie-was-a-woman-of-the-future/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>''Radioactive'', the movie</ref> After a quick study of radiology, anatomy, and automotive mechanics, she procured X-ray equipment, vehicles, and auxiliary generators, and she developed mobile [[radiography]] units, which came to be popularly known as {{lang|fr|petites Curies}} ("Little Curies").<ref name="Marie Curie War" /> She became the director of the [[Red Cross]] Radiology Service and set up France's first military radiology centre, operational by late 1914.<ref name="Marie Curie War" /> Assisted at first by a military doctor and her 17-year-old daughter [[Irène Joliot-Curie|Irène]], Curie directed the installation of 20 mobile radiological vehicles and another 200 radiological units at field hospitals in the first year of the war.<ref name="Estreicher1938c" /><ref name="Marie Curie War" /> Later, she began training other women as aides.<ref name="Marie Curie War2" />

In 1915, Curie produced hollow needles containing "radium emanation", a colourless, radioactive gas given off by radium, later identified as [[radon]], to be used for sterilising infected tissue. She provided the radium from her own one-gram supply.<ref name="Marie Curie War2" /> It is estimated that over a million wounded soldiers were treated with her X-ray units.<ref name="Reid1974a" /><ref name="Estreicher1938c" /> Busy with this work, she carried out very little scientific research during that period.<ref name="Estreicher1938c" /> In spite of all her humanitarian contributions to the French war effort, Curie never received any formal recognition of it from the French government.<ref name="Marie Curie War" />

Also, promptly after the war started, she attempted to donate her gold Nobel Prize medals to the war effort but the [[Banque de France|French National Bank]] refused to accept them.<ref name="Marie Curie War2" />  She did buy [[war bonds]], using her Nobel Prize money.<ref name="Marie Curie War2" /> She said:

{{blockquote|I am going to give up the little gold I possess. I shall add to this the scientific medals, which are quite useless to me. There is something else: by sheer laziness I had allowed the money for my second Nobel Prize to remain in Stockholm in Swedish crowns. This is the chief part of what we possess. I should like to bring it back here and invest it in war loans. The state needs it. Only, I have no illusions: this money will probably be lost.<ref name="Coppes-Zantinga1998" /> }}

She was also an active member in committees of [[Poles in France]] dedicated to the Polish cause.<ref name="Śladkowski1980" /> After the war, she summarised her wartime experiences in a book, ''Radiology in War'' (1919).<ref name="Marie Curie War2" />

=== Postwar years ===
In 1920, for the 25th anniversary of the discovery of radium, the French government established a stipend for her; its previous recipient was [[Louis Pasteur]], who had died in 1895.<!--Don't give his year of birth here – irrelevant and in this context it absurdly suggests he had the stipend since birth--><ref name="Estreicher1938c" /> In 1921, Curie toured the United States to raise funds for research on radium. [[Marie Mattingly Meloney]], after interviewing Curie, created a ''Marie Curie Radium Fund'' and helped publicise her trip.<ref name="Estreicher1938c" /><ref name="Lewicki2002" />{{efn|Marie Skłodowska Curie was escorted to the United States by the American author and social activist [[Charlotte Kellogg]].<ref>[[Charlotte Kellogg]] ([[Carmel, California]]), ''An intimate picture of Madame Curie, from diary notes covering a friendship of fifteen years''. In the&nbsp;[https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.SCHAFFNER Joseph Halle Schaffner Collection in the History of Science] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221013140329/https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.SCHAFFNER |date=13 October 2022 }}, 1642–1961, Special Collections, [[University of Chicago Library]].</ref>}}

In 1921 U.S. President [[Warren G. Harding]] received Curie at the White House to present her with the 1&nbsp;gram of radium collected in the United States.<ref name="Julie Des Jardins2011" /><ref name="The Radium Institute" /> Before the meeting, recognising her growing fame abroad, and embarrassed by the fact that she had no French official distinctions to wear in public, the French government had offered her a [[Legion of Honour]] award, but she refused it.<ref name="The Radium Institute" /><ref name="Pasachoff1996" /> In 1922 she became a fellow of the [[French Academy of Medicine]].<ref name="Estreicher1938c" /> She also travelled to other countries, appearing publicly and giving lectures in Belgium, Brazil, Spain, and Czechoslovakia.<ref name="Zwoliński" />

[[File:Irene and Marie Curie 1925.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Marie and daughter [[Irène Curie|Irène]], 1925]]

Led by Curie, the Institute produced four more Nobel Prize winners, including her daughter [[Irène Joliot-Curie]] and her son-in-law, [[Frédéric Joliot-Curie]].<ref name="The Radium Institute 2" /> Eventually, it became one of the world's four major radioactivity-research laboratories, the others being the [[Cavendish Laboratory]], with [[Ernest Rutherford]]; the [[Institute for Radium Research, Vienna]], with [[Stefan Meyer (physicist)|Stefan Meyer]]; and the [[Max Planck Institute for Chemistry|Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry]], with [[Otto Hahn]] and [[Lise Meitner]].<ref name="The Radium Institute 2" /><ref name="Chemistry International&nbsp;– Newsmagazine for IUPAC" />

In August 1922, Curie became a member of the [[League of Nations]]' newly created [[International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation]].<ref>{{Cite journal |issue=2 |last=Grandjean |first=Martin |title=Analisi e visualizzazioni delle reti in storia. L'esempio della cooperazione intellettuale della Società delle Nazioni |language=it |journal=Memoria e Ricerca |year=2017 |pages=371–393 |doi=10.14647/87204}} See also: [https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01610098v2 French version] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107004313/https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01610098v2 |date=7 November 2017 }} (PDF) and [http://www.martingrandjean.ch/complex-structures-and-international-organizations/ English summary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171102034717/http://www.martingrandjean.ch/complex-structures-and-international-organizations/ |date=2 November 2017 }}.</ref><ref name="NYT1995" /> She sat on the committee until 1934 and contributed to League of Nations' scientific coordination with other prominent researchers such as [[Albert Einstein]], [[Hendrik Lorentz]], and [[Henri Bergson]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Grandjean |first=Martin |date=2018 |title=Les réseaux de la coopération intellectuelle. La Société des Nations comme actrice des échanges scientifiques et culturels dans l'entre-deux-guerres |trans-title=The Networks of Intellectual Cooperation. The League of Nations as an Actor of the Scientific and Cultural Exchanges in the Inter-War Period |url=https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01853903/document |language=fr |publisher=University of Lausanne |access-date=27 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180912022034/https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01853903/document |archive-date=12 September 2018 |url-status=live |pages=303–305}}</ref> In 1923 she wrote a biography of her late husband, titled ''Pierre Curie''.<ref name="leg" /> In 1925 she visited Poland to participate in a ceremony laying the foundations for Warsaw's [[Curie Institute, Warsaw|Radium Institute]].<ref name="Estreicher1938c" /> Her second American tour, in 1929, succeeded in equipping the Warsaw Radium Institute with radium; the Institute opened in 1932, with her sister Bronisława its director.<ref name="Estreicher1938c" /><ref name="The Radium Institute" /> These distractions from her scientific labours, and the attendant publicity, caused her much discomfort but provided resources for her work.<ref name="The Radium Institute" /> In 1930, she was elected to the [[Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights|International Atomic Weights Committee]], on which she served until her death.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=http://www.iupac.org/publications/ci/2004/2601/1_holden.html |title=Atomic Weights and the International Committee: A Historical Review |first=Norman E. |last=Holden |journal=Chemistry International |year=2004 |access-date=11 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219161333/http://www.iupac.org/publications/ci/2004/2601/1_holden.html |archive-date=19 December 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1931, Curie was awarded the [[Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/exhibitions/pioneers/maria-sklodowska-curie |title=Maria Skłodowska-Curie |website=Europeana Exhibitions |access-date=5 March 2020 |archive-date=7 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190607004649/https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/exhibitions/pioneers/maria-sklodowska-curie |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Death ===
[[File:Sklodowska-Curie statue, Warsaw.JPG|thumb|upright=0.8|1935 statue, facing the Radium Institute, [[Warsaw]]]]
Curie visited Poland for the last time in early 1934.<ref name="Wierzewski2008" /><ref name="The Radium Institute 3" /> A few months later, on 4 July 1934, she died aged 66 at the [[Sancellemoz]] sanatorium in [[Passy, Haute-Savoie]], from [[aplastic anaemia]] believed to have been contracted from her long-term exposure to radiation, causing damage to her bone marrow.<ref name="Estreicher1938c" /><ref>[https://nationalstemcellfoundation.org/glossary/aplastic-anemia/#:~:text=Marie%20Curie%2C%20famous%20for%20her,radiation%20were%20not%20then%20known Marie Curie profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527215049/https://nationalstemcellfoundation.org/glossary/aplastic-anemia/#:~:text=Marie%20Curie%2C%20famous%20for%20her,radiation%20were%20not%20then%20known |date=27 May 2022 }}, National Stem Cell Foundation. Accessed 16 July 2022.</ref>

The damaging effects of ionising radiation were not known at the time of her work, which had been carried out without the safety measures later developed.<ref name="The Radium Institute 3" /> She had carried test tubes containing radioactive isotopes in her pocket,<ref name="ShipmanWilsonTodd2012" /> and she stored them in her desk drawer, remarking on the [[Radioluminescence|faint light]] that the substances gave off in the dark.<ref name="Blom2008" /> Curie was also exposed to X-rays from unshielded equipment while serving as a radiologist in field hospitals during the First World War.<ref name="Marie Curie War2" />  When Curie's body was exhumed in 1995, the French ''Office de Protection contre les Rayonnements Ionisants'' (''OPRI'') "concluded that she could not have been exposed to lethal levels of radium while she was alive". They pointed out that radium poses a risk only if it is ingested, and speculated that her illness was more likely to have been due to her use of radiography during the First World War.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/377096b0 |title=X-rays, not radium, may have killed Curie |date=14 September 1995 |last=Butler |first=D. |journal=Nature |volume=377 |issue=6545 |page=96 |pmid=7675094 |bibcode=1995Natur.377...96. |s2cid=186242763 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

She was interred at the cemetery in [[Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine|Sceaux]], alongside her husband Pierre.<ref name="Estreicher1938c" /> Sixty years later, in 1995, in honour of their achievements, the remains of both were transferred to the Paris {{langn|fr|[[Panthéon]]}}. Their remains were sealed in a lead lining because of the radioactivity.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tasch |first1=Barbera |title=These personal effects of 'the mother of modern physics' will be radioactive for another 1500 years |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/marie-curie-radioactive-papers-2015-8 |website=Business Insider Australia |access-date=15 November 2021 |date=24 August 2015 |archive-date=15 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211115213929/https://www.businessinsider.com.au/marie-curie-radioactive-papers-2015-8 |url-status=live}}</ref> She became the second woman to be interred at the Panthéon (after [[Sophie Berthelot]]) and the first woman to be honoured with interment in the Panthéon on her own merits.<ref name="NYT1995" />

Because of their levels of radioactive contamination, her papers from the 1890s are considered too dangerous to handle.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://gizmodo.com/marie-curies-100-year-old-notebook-is-still-too-radioac-1615847891 |title=Marie Curie's century-old radioactive notebook still requires lead box |first=Adam Clark |last=Estes |date=4 August 2014 |access-date=9 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913230200/http://gizmodo.com/marie-curies-100-year-old-notebook-is-still-too-radioac-1615847891 |archive-date=13 September 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Even her cookbooks are highly radioactive.<ref name="Bryson2004" /> Her papers are kept in lead-lined boxes, and those who wish to consult them must wear protective clothing.<ref name="Bryson2004" /> In her last year, she worked on a book, ''Radioactivity'', which was published posthumously in 1935.<ref name="The Radium Institute 3" />