Marie Sklodowska Curie Biography

Grows up in Warsaw under Russian imperial rule.

Birth of Marie Sklodowska Curie in Warsaw.

Leaves Warsaw to study at the University of Paris.

Completes a physics degree at the University of Paris.

Completes further mathematical studies in Paris.

Marries Pierre Curie and continues research in Paris.

Begins studying Becquerel rays for her doctoral work.

Gives birth to her daughter Irene Curie.

Measures uranium minerals while developing the concept of radioactivity.

Uses radioactivity to describe emissions from uranium and thorium.

Announces polonium with Pierre Curie.

Announces radium with Pierre Curie and Gustave Bemont.

Finds pitchblende more radioactive than uranium alone.

Shows pitchblende contains a substance far more radioactive than uranium.

Begins teaching physics at the Ecole Normale Superieure for women.

Names polonium after Poland, her native country.

Determines radium properties from purified radium chloride.

Separates radium salts and determines radium properties during doctoral research.

Receives the Davy Medal with Pierre Curie.

Leaves the radium isolation process unpatented for open scientific use.

Receives her doctorate for research on radioactive substances.

Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics and becomes the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize.

Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for radiation research.

Continues isolating radium compounds after the Nobel Prize.

Gives birth to Eve Curie, her second daughter.

Travels to Stockholm for the delayed Nobel ceremonies.

Succeeds Pierre Curie in his Sorbonne chair.

Gives her first lecture as Sorbonne professor.

Becomes a full professor at the Sorbonne.

Supports plans for a dedicated radium research institute.

Produces radium as a pure metal with Andre Debierne.

Attends the first Solvay Conference on radiation and quanta.

Is hospitalised after severe strain following her second Nobel Prize.

Receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on radium and polonium, including the isolation and study of radium.

Wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for radium and polonium.

Returns gradually to scientific work after illness and controversy.

Continues work on radium standards for scientific measurement.

Organises mobile radiography units for wartime medical service.

The Paris Radium Institute opens as war begins.

Equips mobile X-ray cars known as Little Curies.

Expands military radiology services for French hospitals.

Returns the Radium Institute to peacetime research after the war.

Publishes on radiology experiences from the war.

Develops the Curie laboratory as a centre for radioactivity research.

Receives the Willard Gibbs Award for chemistry.

Receives a gram of radium from American supporters.

Is elected to the French Academy of Medicine.

Serves on the League committee for intellectual cooperation.

Lays a foundation stone for a Warsaw radium institute.

Visits the United States to support radium work in Warsaw.

Opens the Radium Institute in Warsaw.

Visits Poland for the final time before her death.

Death of Marie Sklodowska Curie at the Sancellemoz sanatorium.

Dies from aplastic anaemia linked to long radiation exposure.

Dies after years of exposure to radioactive materials and wartime X-rays.