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 There
are many great scientists in the world. This week, let's meet the
famous female scientist Marie Curie!
We usually call her Madame Curie. She was one of the first woman scientists
and one of the great scientists of the 20th Century. She discovered radium. It opened the door
to deep changes in the way scientists think about matter and energy. She also
led the way to a new era for medical knowledge and the treatment of diseases.
Marie Curie was born on November 7, 1867 in Poland. She grew up in
Warsaw, the capital of Poland. She was
the daughter of a school teacher. She received a general education in local
schools. She also received some scientific training from her father.
In 1891, she went to Paris to continue her studies at the
Sorbonne. There, she received degrees in Physics and the Mathematical
Sciences. She met Pierre Curie, Professor in the School of Physics
in 1894. In the following year, they were married. She gained her
Doctor of Science degree in 1903.
 In
1906, Pierre Curie died. After Pierre's death, Madame Curie became
the first woman Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences.
She was also appointed Director of the Curie Laboratory in the Radium
Institute of the University of Paris, founded in 1914.
At that time, people looked down on women. They thought women couldn't
do important things. So Madame Curie had to fight the stupidity and prejudices of her time. And
she kept her passion for science throughout
her life. Her work is recorded in numerous papers in scientific journals.
She also wrote several books. Today, scientists all over the world respect Madame Curie.
 Madame Curie
developed methods to separate radium from radioactive residues to study its therapeutic properties. Radium
began to be used to treat tumors. Madame Curie and
Pierre Curie won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for their study
of radium. Madame Curie was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize.
Eight years later in 1911, Madame Curie received her second Nobel
Prize in Chemistry for her study of
radioactivity.
A month after accepting her second Nobel Prize, she was hospitalized
with depression and a kidney trouble. She died
on July 4, 1934. |
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