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{{Short description|Polish-French physicist and chemist (1867–1934)}}
{{About|the Polish-French physicist|the musician|Marie Currie||Marie Curie (disambiguation)}}
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{{Infobox scientist
| image             = Marie Curie c. 1920s.jpg
| caption           = Portrait {{circa|1920}}
| alt               = Black-and-white head shot of Curie
| birth_name        = Maria Salomea Skłodowska
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=y|1867|11|7}}
| birth_place       = [[Warsaw]], Congress Poland, Russian Empire 
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=y|1934|7|4|1867|11|7}}
| death_place       = [[Passy, Haute-Savoie|Passy]], Rhône-Alpes, France
| death_cause       = [[Aplastic anaemia]]
| citizenship       = {{ubl|Russian Empire (until 1895)|France (from 1895)}}
| alma_mater        = [[University of Paris]]
| known_for         = {{plainlist|
* Discovering [[polonium]] and [[radium]]
* Researching [[radioactivity]]
}}
| spouse            = {{marriage|[[Pierre Curie]]|1895|1906|end=d}}
| children          = {{hlist|[[Irène Joliot-Curie|Irène]]|[[Ève Curie|Ève]]}}
| father            = [[Władysław Skłodowski]]
| relatives         = {{ubl|[[Józef Skłodowski]] (grandfather)|[[Bronisława Dłuska|Bronisława Skłodowska]] (sister)|[[Helena Skłodowska-Szalay|Helena Skłodowska]] (sister)|[[Józef Boguski]] (cousin)}}
| family            = [[Skłodowski family|Skłodowski]] (by birth)<br>[[Curie family|Curie]] (by marriage)
| awards            = {{ubl|[[Davy Medal]] (1903)|[[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1903)|[[Matteucci Medal]] (1904)|[[Actonian Prize]] (1907)|[[Elliott Cresson Medal]] (1909)|[[Albert Medal (Royal Society of Arts)|Albert Medal]] (1910)|[[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1911)|[[Willard Gibbs Award]] (1921)|[[John Scott Medal]] (1921)|[[Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh]] (1931)}}
| fields            = [[Physics]]<br/>[[Chemistry]]
| work_institutions = {{Tree list}}
* University of Paris
** [[Curie Institute (Paris)|Institut du Radium]]
* {{Lang|fr|[[École normale supérieure]]|italic=no}}
* [[French Academy of Medicine]]
* [[International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation]]
{{Tree list/end}}
| thesis_title      = {{lang|fr|Recherches sur les substances radioactives|italic=unset|nocat=y}} (Research on Radioactive Substances)
| thesis_url        = http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1013413307
| thesis_year       = 1903
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Gabriel Lippmann]]
| doctoral_students = {{ubl|[[André-Louis Debierne]]|[[Gioacchino Failla]]|[[Ladislas Goldstein]]|[[Émile Henriot (chemist)|Émile Henriot]]|[[Irène Joliot-Curie]]|[[Óscar Moreno]]|[[Marguerite Perey]]|[[Francis Perrin (physicist)|Francis Perrin]]}}
| signature         = Marie Curie Skłodowska Signature Polish.svg
}}

[[File:Warszawa, ul. Freta 16 20170516 002.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Marie Curie's [[Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum|birthplace]] at 16 Freta Street in [[Warsaw]]'s [[New Town, Warsaw|New Town]]]]
'''Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie'''{{Family name footnote|Skłodowska|Sklodowska|lang=Polish}} ({{IPA|pl|ˈmarja salɔˈmɛa skwɔˈdɔfska kʲiˈri|lang|Pl-Maria Skłodowska-Curie.ogg}}; {{née|'''Skłodowska'''}}; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known as '''Marie Curie''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|j|ʊər|i}} {{respell|KURE|ee}};<ref>{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Jones (phonetician) |editor1-last=Roach |editor1-first=Peter |editor2-last=Setter |editor2-first=Jane |editor2-link=Jane Setter |editor3-last=Esling |editor3-first=John |year=2011 |title=Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary |edition=18th |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-15253-2 |title-link=Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary}}</ref> {{IPA|fr|maʁi kyʁi|lang|Marie Curie french pronunciation.ogg}}), was a Polish and [[Naturalization|naturalised]]-French<!--Note: Per 1 November 2013 talk-page Request for Comment consensus, please do not change the nationality description without consulting the discussion page. This formulation ("Polish and naturalized-French") has been found to be the best way to reflect Curie's connections to both of these countries.--> [[physicist]] and [[chemist]] who conducted pioneering research on [[radioactivity]]. 

She was [[List of female Nobel laureates|the first woman to win a Nobel Prize]], the first person [[Nobel Prize#Multiple laureates|to win a Nobel Prize twice]], and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. Her husband, [[Pierre Curie]], was a co-winner of her first Nobel Prize, making them the [[Nobel Prize#Statistics|first married couple]] to win the Nobel Prize and launching the [[Nobel Prize#Family laureates|Curie family legacy]] of five Nobel Prizes. She was, in 1906, the first woman to become a professor at the [[University of Paris]].<ref name="Julie Des Jardins2011" />

She was born in [[Warsaw]], in what was then the [[Congress Poland|Kingdom of Poland]], part of the [[Russian Empire]]. She studied at Warsaw's clandestine [[Flying University]] and began her practical scientific training in Warsaw. In 1891, aged 24, she followed her elder sister [[Bronisława Dłuska|Bronisława]] to study in Paris, where she earned her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. In 1895, she married the French physicist [[Pierre Curie]], and she shared the 1903 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] with him and with the physicist [[Henri Becquerel]] for their pioneering work developing the theory of "radioactivity"—a term she coined.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.lbl.gov/abc/wallchart/chapters/03/4.html |title=The Discovery of Radioactivity |website=[[Berkeley Lab]] |quote=The term radioactivity was actually coined by Marie Curie&nbsp;... |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151101075508/http://www2.lbl.gov/abc/wallchart/chapters/03/4.html |archive-date=1 November 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/educational/nobelprize_info/curie-edu.html |title=Marie Curie and the radioactivity, The 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics |website=nobelprize.org |quote=Marie called this radiation radioactivity—'radio' means radiation. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180730115737/https://www.nobelprize.org/educational/nobelprize_info/curie-edu.html |archive-date=30 July 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1906, Pierre Curie died in a Paris street accident. Marie won the 1911 [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] for her discovery of the elements [[polonium]] and [[radium]], using techniques she invented for isolating radioactive [[isotope]]s. 

Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of [[neoplasm]]s by the use of radioactive isotopes. She founded the [[Curie Institute (Paris)|Curie Institute in Paris]] in 1920, and the [[Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology|Curie Institute in Warsaw]] in 1932; both remain major medical research centres. During [[World War I]], she developed mobile radiography units to provide [[X-ray]] services to [[field hospital]]s.

While a French citizen, Marie Skłodowska Curie, who used both surnames,<ref>See her signature, "M. Skłodowska Curie", in the infobox.</ref><ref>Her 1911 [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] was granted to "Marie Sklodowska Curie" [[:File:Marie Skłodowska-Curie's Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911.jpg]].</ref> never lost her sense of Polish identity. She taught her daughters the Polish language and took them on visits to Poland.<ref name="Goldsmith2005a" /> She named the first [[chemical element]] she discovered ''[[polonium]]'', after her native country.{{efn|Poland had been [[Partitions of Poland|partitioned in the 18th century among Russia, Prussia, and Austria]], and it was Maria Skłodowska Curie's hope that naming the element after her native country would bring world attention to Poland's lack of independence as a sovereign state. [[Polonium]] may have been the first chemical element named to highlight a political question.<ref name="Kabzińska1998" />}} 

Marie Curie died in 1934, aged 66, at the {{lang|fr|[[Sancellemoz]]|italic=no}} [[sanatorium]] in [[Passy, Haute-Savoie|Passy]] ({{lang|fr|[[Haute-Savoie]]|italic=no}}), France, of [[aplastic anaemia]] likely from exposure to radiation in the course of her scientific research and in the course of her radiological work at field hospitals during World War I.<ref>{{YouTube|Zz7Q-zZ4onc|"The Genius of Marie Curie: The Woman Who Lit Up the World"}} (a 2013 [[BBC]] documentary)</ref> In addition to her Nobel Prizes, she received numerous other honours and tributes; in 1995 she became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Paris {{lang|fr|[[Panthéon]]|italic=no}},<ref name="NYT1995" /> and Poland declared 2011 the Year of Marie Curie during the [[International Year of Chemistry]]. She is the subject of numerous biographies.

== 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 Salomea 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="Reid">{{cite book|last=Reid|first=Robert William|title=Marie Curie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p81XAAAAYAAJ |year=1974 |publisher=New American Library|isbn=978-0-00-211539-1 |access-date=15 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611033456/https://books.google.com/books?id=p81XAAAAYAAJ |archive-date=11 June 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|6}}
[[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="Reid" />{{rp|24}}

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="Reid" />{{rp|23}}

=== 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="Reid" />{{rp|32}}<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]] ([[History of ESPCI Paris|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" /> Marie'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="Reid" />{{rp|61-63}}

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 Paris|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="Reid" />{{rp|63-64}} 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="Reid" />{{rp|64}}}}
[[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|Académie des 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. Since she was not a member of the Académie, her paper, giving a brief and simple account of her work, was presented for her to the Académie on 12 April 1898 by her former professor, [[Gabriel Lippmann]]. 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]]<ref name="Reid" />{{rp|64-65}} had published his own finding in Berlin.<ref name="Reid" />{{rp|65}}
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="Reid" />{{rp|65}} 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="Reid" />{{rp|65}}

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=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241111212801/https://www.academie-sciences.fr/pdf/dossiers/Curie/Curie_pdf/CR1898_p175_178.pdf |archive-date=11 November 2024 |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. |access-date=11 November 2024 }} [http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/curiespo.html English translation.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220701103139/http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/curiespo.html |date=1 July 2022 }}</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 |archive-date=14 August 2024 |access-date=14 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240814105947/https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3731197#page/813/mode/1up |url-status=live }} [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 de jeunes filles]] 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 died 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, which fractured his skull and killed 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="Reid" />{{rp|44,90}}  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".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Zernike |first=Kate |date=2024-10-10 |title=Marie Curie: Mentor to Women or Martyr to Science? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/10/books/review/dava-sobel-elements-of-marie-curie.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250730090540/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/10/books/review/dava-sobel-elements-of-marie-curie.html |archive-date=2025-07-30 |access-date=2025-10-03 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gingras |first=Yves |date=23 March 2019 |title=The moralisation of science is challenging its autonomy |url=https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20190320145639758 |website=University World News}}</ref>

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="Reid" /><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" />

== Legacy ==
[[File:Lublin UMCS Pomnik Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Statue of Maria Skłodowska-Curie (Lublin)]]]]

The physical and societal aspects of the Curies' work contributed to shaping the world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.<ref name="Estreicher1938d" /> Curie’s work laid the foundation for modern nuclear physics, cancer treatments, and radiography. Her techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes are still used in research and medicine.  [[Cornell University]] professor [[L. Pearce Williams]] observes:

{{blockquote|The result of the Curies' work was epoch-making. Radium's radioactivity was so great that it could not be ignored. It seemed to contradict the principle of the conservation of energy and therefore forced a reconsideration of the foundations of physics. On the experimental level the discovery of radium provided men like Ernest Rutherford with sources of radioactivity with which they could probe the structure of the atom. As a result of Rutherford's experiments with alpha radiation, the nuclear atom was first postulated. In medicine, the radioactivity of radium appeared to offer a means by which cancer could be successfully attacked.<ref name="Williams1986 p332" />}}

In addition to helping to overturn established ideas in physics and chemistry, Curie's work has had a profound effect in the societal sphere. To attain her scientific achievements, she had to overcome barriers, in both her native and her adoptive country, that were placed in her way because she was a woman.<ref name="Wierzewski2008" /> She also mentored female scientists at the Radium Institute, helping pave the way for women in physics and chemistry.{{cn|date=December 2025}}

She was known for her honesty and moderate lifestyle.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /><ref name="Estreicher1938d" /> Having received a small scholarship in 1893, she returned it in 1897 as soon as she began earning her keep.<ref name="Estreicher1938a" /><ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris 2" /> She gave much of her first Nobel Prize money to friends, family, students, and research associates.<ref name="Wierzewski2008" /> Curie intentionally refrained from patenting the radium-isolation process so that the scientific community could do research unhindered.<ref name="Reid" />{{rp|265}}{{efn|However, [[Patricia Fara]] writes: "Marie Skłodowska Curie's reputation as a scientific martyr is often supported by quoting her denial (carefully crafted by her American publicist, [[Marie Meloney]]) that she derived any personal gain from her research: 'There were no patents. We were working in the interests of science. Radium was not to enrich anyone. Radium... belongs to all people.' As Eva Hemmungs Wirtén pointed out in ''Making Marie Curie'', this claim takes on a different hue once you learn that, under French law, Curie was banned from taking out a patent in her own name, so that any profits from her research would automatically have gone to her husband, Pierre." [[Patricia Fara]], "It leads to everything" (review of Paul Sen, ''Einstein's Fridge: The Science of Fire, Ice and the Universe'', William Collins, April 2021, {{ISBN|978 0 00 826279 2}}, 305 pp.), ''[[London Review of Books]]'', vol. 43, no. 18 (23 September 2021), pp. 20–21 (quotation, p. 21).}} She insisted that monetary gifts and awards be given to the scientific institutions she was affiliated with rather than to her.<ref name="Estreicher1938d" /> She and her husband often refused awards and medals.<ref name="Estreicher1938b" /> [[Albert Einstein]] reportedly remarked that she was probably the only person who could not be corrupted by fame.<ref name="Wierzewski2008" />

== Commemorations ==
[[File:CERN, Marie Curie, Ginebra, Suiza, 2015 19.JPG|thumb|upright=0.9| Bust of "Maria Skłodowska-Curie", [[Microcosm (CERN)|CERN Museum]], [[Switzerland]], 2015]]

As one of the most famous scientists in history, Marie Curie has become an icon in the scientific world and has received tributes from across the globe, even in the realm of [[pop culture]].<ref name="Borzendowski2009a" /> She also received many honorary degrees from universities across the world.<ref name="The Radium Institute" />

Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in [[Nobel Prize#Multiple laureates|multiple sciences]].<ref name="Nobel" /> Awards and honours that she received include:
* [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1903, with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel)<ref name="Estreicher1938b" />
* [[Davy Medal]] (1903, with Pierre)<ref name="Zwoliński" /><ref name="Vincent Sheean1999" />
* [[Matteucci Medal]] (1904, with Pierre)<ref name="Vincent Sheean1999" />
* [[Actonian Prize]] (1907)<ref>{{cite journal |title=Scientific Notes and News |journal=Science |volume=25 |issue=647 |year=1907 |pages=839–840 |issn=0036-8075 |doi=10.1126/science.25.647.839 |bibcode=1907Sci....25..839. |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1974994 |access-date=24 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190426190212/https://zenodo.org/record/1974994/files/article.pdf |archive-date=26 April 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Elliott Cresson Medal]] (1909)<ref name="FranklinInstitute" />
* [[Legion of Honour]] (1909, rejected)<ref>{{cite book |last=Opfell |first=Olga S. |author-link= |date=1978 |title=The Lady Laureates. Women Who Have Won the Nobel Prize |url= |location=London |publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=161 |isbn=}}</ref>
* [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1911)<ref name="Wierzewski2008" />
* [[Civil Order of Alfonso XII]] (1919)<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.revistalaocaloca.com/2011/12/marie-curie-cientifica-universal/ |title=Marie Curie, científica universal |trans-title=Marie Curie, Universal Scientist |first=Miguel |last=Carreras Ezquerra |magazine=La Oca Loca |language=es |date=21 December 2011 |access-date=16 November 2023}}</ref>
* [[Benjamin Franklin Medal (American Philosophical Society)|Franklin Medal]] of the [[American Philosophical Society]] (1921)<ref name="Proc. Am. Philos. Soc.1921" />
* [[Order of the White Eagle (Poland)|Order of the White Eagle]] (2018, posthumously)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.prezydent.pl/aktualnosci/ordery-i-odznaczenia/ordery-orla-bialego-przyznane-posmiertnie-25-wybitnym-polakom,7125 |language=pl |title=Ordery Orła Białego przyznane pośmiertnie 25 wybitnym Polakom |website=prezydent.pl |date=11 November 2018 |access-date=16 November 2023 |archive-date=16 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221016043915/https://www.prezydent.pl/aktualnosci/ordery-i-odznaczenia/ordery-orla-bialego-przyznane-posmiertnie-25-wybitnym-polakom,7125 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Entities that have been named after Marie Curie include:
* The [[Curie (unit)|curie]] (symbol Ci), a unit of radioactivity, is named in honour of her and Pierre Curie (although the commission which agreed on the name never clearly stated whether the standard was named after Pierre, Marie, or both).<ref name="Frame1996" />
* The element with atomic number 96 was named [[curium]] (symbol Cm).<ref name="RoyalSociety" />
* Three radioactive minerals are also named after the Curies: [[curite]], [[sklodowskite]], and [[cuprosklodowskite]].<ref name="Borzendowski2009b" />
* The [[Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions]] fellowship program of the [[European Union]] for young scientists wishing to work in a foreign country<ref>{{cite web |title=Marie Curie Actions |url=http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/documents/documentation/publications/eu-marie-curie-actions-fellowships-innovative-science-becomes-success-publication_en.pdf |publisher=European Commission |access-date=10 September 2012 |page=5 |year=2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130604030857/http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/documents/documentation/publications/eu-marie-curie-actions-fellowships-innovative-science-becomes-success-publication_en.pdf |archive-date=4 June 2013}}</ref>
* In 2007 [[Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris Métro)|a Paris metro station]] (in [[Ivry-sur-Seine|Ivry]]) was renamed after the two Curies.<ref name="Borzendowski2009b" />

* The [[Marie-Curie station]], a planned underground [[Réseau express métropolitain]] (REM) station in the borough of [[Saint-Laurent (borough)|Saint-Laurent]] in [[Montreal]] is named in her honour.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://journalmetro.com/local/saint-laurent/actualites/1060449/premier-coup-doeil-aux-stations-du-rem/ |title=Premier coup d'œil aux stations du REM |language=French |publisher=Metro Media |date=December 5, 2016 |accessdate=July 15, 2020 |archive-date=28 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190128235632/http://journalmetro.com/local/saint-laurent/actualites/1060449/premier-coup-doeil-aux-stations-du-rem/ |url-status=live }}</ref> A nearby road, Avenue Marie Curie, is also named in her honour.

* The Polish research [[Maria reactor|nuclear reactor Maria]]<ref name="IAEPoland" />
* The [[7000 Curie]] asteroid<ref name="Borzendowski2009b" />
* [[Marie Curie (charity)|Marie Curie charity]], in the United Kingdom<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=207994&subId=0 |title=Marie Curie |website=charitycommission.gov.uk |access-date=16 November 2023 |archive-date=2 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231002104837/https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=207994&subId=0 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The [[IEEE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award]], an international award presented for outstanding contributions to the field of nuclear and plasma sciences and engineering, was established by the [[Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers]] in 2008.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://corporate-awards.ieee.org/award/ieee-marie-sklodowska-curie-award/ |title=IEEE Marie Skłodowska–Curie Award |website=[[IEEE]] |access-date=14 November 2023}}</ref>
* The [[Marie Curie Medal]], an annual [[science awards|science award]] established in 1996 and conferred by the [[Polish Chemical Society]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.chemistryviews.org/details/ezine/11180774/100_Years_Polish_Chemical_Society/#:~:text=During%20the%20anniversary%20celebrations%2C%20Professor%20Roald%20Hoffmann%20was,Adam%20Mickiewicz%20University%20%28AMU%29%2C%20Poznan%2C%20Poland.%20Figure%206. |title=100 Years Polish Chemical Society |website=chemistryviews.org |author=Vera Koester |date=7 September 2019 |access-date=25 April 2023 |archive-date=25 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425175409/https://www.chemistryviews.org/details/ezine/11180774/100_Years_Polish_Chemical_Society/#:~:text=During%20the%20anniversary%20celebrations%2C%20Professor%20Roald%20Hoffmann%20was,Adam%20Mickiewicz%20University%20%28AMU%29%2C%20Poznan%2C%20Poland.%20Figure%206. |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The Marie Curie–Sklodowska Medal and Prize, an annual award conferred by the London-based [[Institute of Physics]] for distinguished contributions to physics education<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.iop.org/about/awards/silver-subject-medals |title=Silver Subject Medals and Prizes |website=iop.org |access-date=25 April 2023 |archive-date=25 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425174617/https://www.iop.org/about/awards/silver-subject-medals |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Maria Curie-Skłodowska University]] in [[Lublin]], Poland<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.umcs.pl/en/biography-of-maria-curie-sklodowska,24559.htm |title=Biography of Maria Curie–Skłodowska |website=umcs.pl |access-date=16 November 2023}}</ref>
* [[Pierre and Marie Curie University]] in Paris
* [[Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology]] in Poland
* [[École élémentaire Marie-Curie]] in London, Ontario, Canada; [[Curie Metropolitan High School]] in Chicago, United States; [[Marie Curie High School]] in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; [[Lycée français Marie Curie de Zurich]], Switzerland; see [[Lycée Marie Curie (disambiguation)|Lycée Marie Curie]] for a list of other schools named after her.
* [[Rue Madame Curie]] in Beirut, Lebanon
* Beetle species – ''Psammodes sklodowskae'' Kamiński & Gearner<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kamiński |first1=Marcin J. |last2=Gearner |first2=Olivia M. |last3=Raś |first3=Marcin |last4=Hunsinger |first4=Elliot T. |last5=Smith |first5=Amelia L. |last6=Mas-Peinado |first6=Paloma |last7=Girón |first7=Jennifer C. |last8=Bilska |first8=Aleksandra G. |last9=Strümpher |first9=Werner P. |last10=Wirth |first10=Christopher C. |last11=Kanda |first11=Kojun |last12=Swichtenberg |first12=Kali |last13=Iwan |first13=Dariusz |last14=Smith |first14=Aaron D. |date=December 2022 |title=Female terminalia morphology and cladistic relations among Tok-Tok beetles (Tenebrionidae: Sepidiini) |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cla.12510 |journal=Cladistics |language=en |volume=38 |issue=6 |pages=623–648 |doi=10.1111/cla.12510 |pmid=35785491 |issn=0748-3007}}</ref>

Numerous biographies are devoted to her, including:
* [[Ève Curie]] (Marie Curie's daughter), ''Madame Curie'', 1938.
* [[Françoise Giroud]], ''Marie Curie: A Life'', 1987.
* [[Susan Quinn]], ''Marie Curie: A Life'', 1996.
* [[Barbara Goldsmith]], ''Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie'', 2005.<ref name="Cosmopolitanreview.com2011a" />
* [[Lauren Redniss]], ''[[Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, a Tale of Love and Fallout]]'', 2011,<ref name="Cosmopolitan2011b" /> adapted into the 2019 British film.
* {{cite book |last=Sobel |first=Dava |author-link=Dava Sobel |title=The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science |publisher=Fourth Estate |year=2024 |isbn=978-0-00-853691-6 |url=https://groveatlantic.com/book/the-elements-of-marie-curie/}}<ref name="Spinney2024">{{cite news |last=Spinney |first=Laura |date=11 November 2024 |title=The Elements of Marie Curie by Dava Sobel review – the great scientist who created her own school |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 |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref>

Marie Curie has been the subject of a number of films:
* 1943: ''[[Madame Curie (film)|Madame Curie]]'', a U.S. Oscar-nominated film by [[Mervyn LeRoy]] starring [[Greer Garson]].<ref name="leg" />
* 1997: ''[[Les Palmes de M. Schutz]]'', a French film adapted from a play of the same title, and directed by [[Claude Pinoteau]]. Marie Curie is played by [[Isabelle Huppert]].<ref name="Brennan2012" />
* 2014: ''[[Marie Curie, une femme sur le front]]'', a French-Belgian film, directed by {{Interlanguage link|Alain Brunard|lt=Alain Brunard|fr}} and starring [[Dominique Reymond]].
* 2016: ''[[Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge]]'', a European co-production by [[Marie Noëlle]] starring [[Karolina Gruszka]].
* 2016: ''[[Super Science Friends]]'', an American Internet animated series created by Brett Jubinville with Hedy Gregor as Marie Curie.
* 2019: ''[[Radioactive (film)|Radioactive]]'', a British film by [[Marjane Satrapi]] starring [[Rosamund Pike]].

Curie is the subject of the 2013 play ''False Assumptions'' by [[Lawrence Aronovitch]], in which the ghosts of three other women scientists observe events in her life.<ref>[http://www.ottawasun.com/2013/03/26/mixing-science-with-theatre Mixing Science With Theatre] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140512223248/http://www.ottawasun.com/2013/03/26/mixing-science-with-theatre |date=12 May 2014 }}, ''Ottawa Sun'', March 2013</ref> Curie has also been portrayed by Susan Marie Frontczak in her play, ''Manya: The Living History of Marie Curie'', a one-woman show which by 2014 had been performed in 30 U.S. states and nine countries.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.popsci.com/article/science/famous-image-marie-curie-isnt-marie-curie |title=This Famous Image of Marie Curie Isn't Marie Curie |publisher=Popular Science www.popsci.com |date=7 March 2014 |access-date=15 November 2014 |author=Main, Douglas |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141110231415/http://www.popsci.com/article/science/famous-image-marie-curie-isnt-marie-curie |archive-date=10 November 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> Lauren Gunderson's 2019 play ''The Half-Life of Marie Curie'' portrays Curie during the summer after her 1911 Nobel Prize victory, when she was grappling with depression and facing public scorn over the revelation of her affair with Paul Langevin.

The life of the scientist was also the subject of a 2018 Korean musical, titled ''[[Marie Curie (musical)|Marie Curie]]''. The show was since translated in English (as ''Marie Curie a New Musical'') and has been performed several times across Asia and Europe, receiving its official [[Off West End]] premiere in [[London]]'s [[Charing Cross Theatre]] in summer 2024.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Akbar |first=Arifa |date=10 June 2024 |title=Marie Curie review – musical dash through the scientist's life leaves your head spinning |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/jun/10/marie-curie-musical-review-charing-cross-theatre-london |access-date=27 September 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Curie has appeared on more than 600 postage stamps in many countries across the world.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://physicsworld.com/a/what-can-postage-stamps-tell-us-about-the-history-of-nuclear-physics/ |title=What can postage stamps tell us about the history of nuclear physics? |website=physicsworld.com |date=27 October 2023 |access-date=24 March 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.allaboutstamps.co.uk/stamp-guides/thematics/marie-curie-stamps/ |title=Marie Curie on stamps |website=allaboutstamps.co.uk |date=26 November 2018 |access-date=24 March 2024 |archive-date=24 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324193335/https://www.allaboutstamps.co.uk/stamp-guides/thematics/marie-curie-stamps/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Between 1989 and 1996, she was depicted on a 20,000-[[złoty]] banknote designed by [[Andrzej Heidrich]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://banknotedb.com/20-000-zlotych-february-1-1989 |title=20,000 Złotych February 1, 1989 |website=banknotedb.com |access-date=26 March 2024}}</ref> In 2011, a commemorative 20-złoty banknote depicting Curie was issued by the [[National Bank of Poland]] on the 100th anniversary of the scientist receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/nbp-maria-sklodowska-curie-ponownie-na-banknocie |language=pl |title=NBP: Maria Skłodowska–Curie ponownie na banknocie |website=dzieje.pl |date=24 November 2011 |access-date=26 March 2024}}</ref>

In 1994, the [[Bank of France]] issued a 500-[[French franc|franc]] banknote depicting Marie and Pierre Curie.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://en.numista.com/catalogue/note203759.html |title=500 Francs – Pierre & Marie Curie type 1993 |website=en.numista.com |access-date=26 March 2024}}</ref> Since 2024, Curie has been depicted on French [[50 euro cent coin]]s to commemorate her importance in French history.<ref>{{cite web |title=Veil, Baker and Curie: acclaimed women to appear on new French coins |url=https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20240310-veil-baker-and-curie-acclaimed-women-to-appear-on-new-french-coins |website=RFI |access-date=22 March 2024 |language=en |date=10 March 2024 |archive-date=15 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240315065721/https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20240310-veil-baker-and-curie-acclaimed-women-to-appear-on-new-french-coins |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2025, the [[European Central Bank]] announced that Curie had been selected to appear on the obverse of [[20 euro note|twenty euro banknotes]] in a [[Euro banknotes#New series and plans for a redesign|future redesign]], were the theme "European culture" to be selected over "Rivers and birds".<ref>{{Cite press release|url=https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2025/html/ecb.pr250131~611055a567.en.html|title=ECB selects motifs for future euro banknotes|date=31 January 2025|publisher=[[European Central Bank]]|access-date=31 January 2025}}</ref>

Marie Curie was immortalized in at least one color [[Autochrome Lumière]] photograph during her lifetime. It was saved in Musée Curie in Paris.<ref>[https://www.hatiandskoll.com/2017/09/12/pretty-in-pink/ History of Photography by David E]. Wolf 12.09.2017</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Charlotte Kellogg#Marie Curie|Charlotte Hoffman Kellogg]], who sponsored Marie Curie's visit to the US
* [[Eusapia Palladino#France|Eusapia Palladino]]: [[Spiritualism (movement)|Spiritualist]] [[Medium (spirituality)|medium]] whose Paris [[séances]] were attended by an intrigued Pierre Curie and a sceptical Marie Curie
* [[List of female Nobel laureates]]
* [[List of female nominees for the Nobel Prize]]
* [[List of Poles#Chemistry|List of Poles in Chemistry]]
* [[List of Poles#Physics|List of Poles in Physics]]
* [[List of Polish Nobel laureates]]
* [[Skłodowski family]]
* [[Timeline of women in science]]
* ''[[Treatise on Radioactivity]]'', by Marie Curie
* [[Women in chemistry]]
* [[Women in physics]]

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="Frame1996">{{cite web |author=Paul W. Frame |title=How the Curie Came to Be |url=https://orau.org/health-physics-museum/articles/how-the-curie-came-to-be.html |publisher=Oak Ridge Associated Universities |date=October–November 1996 |access-date=16 November 2021 |url-status=live |archive-date=8 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008084612/https://orau.org/health-physics-museum/articles/how-the-curie-came-to-be.html}}</ref>

<ref name="Williams1986b p331">{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia Americana, ''vol. 8'' |year=1986 |publisher=[[Grolier]], Inc. |location=[[Danbury, Connecticut]] |page=331 |author=L. Pearce Williams |chapter=Curie, Pierre and Marie |title-link=Encyclopedia Americana}}</ref>

<ref name="Williams1986 pp331–332">{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia Americana, ''vol. 8'' |year=1986 |publisher=[[Grolier]], Inc. |location=[[Danbury, Connecticut]] |pages=331–332 |author=L. Pearce Williams |chapter=Curie, Pierre and Marie |title-link=Encyclopedia Americana}}</ref>

<ref name="Williams1986 p332">{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia Americana, ''vol. 8'' |year=1986 |publisher=[[Grolier]], Inc. |location=[[Danbury, Connecticut]] |page=332 |author=L. Pearce Williams |chapter=Curie, Pierre and Marie |title-link=Encyclopedia Americana}}</ref>

<ref name="Blom2008">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-3G9gMNCpowC&pg=PA76 |first=Philipp |last=Blom |title=The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900–1914 |chapter=1903: A Strange Luminescence |page=[https://archive.org/details/vertigoyearseuro00blom/page/76 76] |quote=The glowing tubes looked like faint, fairy lights. |year=2008 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-01116-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/vertigoyearseuro00blom/page/76}}</ref>

<ref name="Mould1998">{{cite journal |title=The discovery of radium in 1898 by Maria Sklodowska-Curie (1867–1934) and Pierre Curie (1859–1906) with commentary on their life and times |last=Mould |first=R. F. |journal=The British Journal of Radiology |volume=71 |year=1998 |pages=1229–54 |pmid=10318996 |issue=852 |doi=10.1259/bjr.71.852.10318996}}</ref>

<ref name="Śladkowski1980">{{cite book |first=Wiesław |last=Śladkowski |title=Emigracja polska we Francji 1871–1918 |language=pl |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0MwaAAAAMAAJ |year=1980 |publisher=Wydawnictwo Lubelskie |page=274 |isbn=978-83-222-0147-3 |access-date=15 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617100730/https://books.google.com/books?id=0MwaAAAAMAAJ |archive-date=17 June 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Bryson2004">{{cite book |first=Bill |last=Bryson |title=[[A Short History of Nearly Everything]] |date=2004 |publisher=Broadway Books |isbn=978-0-7679-0818-4 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YjAnfhsAQ8wC&q=cookbooks 111]}}</ref>

<ref name="Goldsmith2005a">{{cite book |first=Barbara |last=Goldsmith |author-link=Barbara Goldsmith |title=Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xuYSLk_tHfgC |year=2005 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-05137-7 |page=149 |access-date=15 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505041336/https://books.google.com/books?id=xuYSLk_tHfgC |archive-date=5 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Goldsmith2005c">{{cite book |first=Barbara |last=Goldsmith |author-link=Barbara Goldsmith |title=Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xuYSLk_tHfgC |year=2005 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-05137-7 |pages=165–76 |access-date=15 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505041336/https://books.google.com/books?id=xuYSLk_tHfgC |archive-date=5 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Goldsmith2005b">{{cite book |first=Barbara |last=Goldsmith |author-link=Barbara Goldsmith |title=Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xuYSLk_tHfgC |year=2005 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-05137-7 |pages=170–71 |access-date=15 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505041336/https://books.google.com/books?id=xuYSLk_tHfgC |archive-date=5 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Wierzewski2008">{{cite journal |title=Mazowieckie korzenie Marii |language=pl |journal=[[Gwiazda Polarna]] |date=21 June 2008 |volume=100 |issue=13 |pages=16–17 |url=http://www.gwiazdapolarna.com/czytaj.php?nr=813&cat=4&art=04-01.txt |access-date=10 September 2012 |author=Wojciech A. Wierzewski |trans-title=Maria's Mazowsze Roots |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090321193811/http://www.gwiazdapolarna.com/czytaj.php?nr=813&cat=4&art=04-01.txt |archive-date=21 March 2009}}</ref>

<ref name="Kabzińska1998">{{cite journal |last=Kabzińska |first=Krystyna |title=''Chemiczne i polskie aspekty odkrycia polonu i radu'' |journal=Przemysł Chemiczny (The Chemical Industry) |year=1998 |volume=77 |pages=104–107 |trans-title=Chemical and Polish Aspects of Polonium and Radium Discovery |language=pl}}</ref>

<ref name="The New York Times1906">{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1906/04/20/archives/prof-curie-killed-in-a-paris-street-the-discoverer-of-radium-run.html |title=Prof. Curie killed in a Paris street |format=PDF |date=20 April 1906 |access-date=8 February 2011 |work=The New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725215446/https://www.nytimes.com/1906/04/20/archives/prof-curie-killed-in-a-paris-street-the-discoverer-of-radium-run.html |archive-date=25 July 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Julie Des Jardins2011">{{cite web |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Madame-Curies-Passion.html |title=Madame Curie's Passion |work=Smithsonian Magazine |author=Julie Des Jardins |date=October 2011 |access-date=11 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121127184144/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Madame-Curies-Passion.html |archive-date=27 November 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/polgirl1.htm |title=Marie Curie&nbsp;– Polish Girlhood (1867–1891) Part 1 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111102131239/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/polgirl1.htm |archive-date=2 November 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie – Polish Girlhood (1867–1891)1">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/polgirl2.htm |title=Marie Curie&nbsp;– Polish Girlhood (1867–1891) Part 2 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111102134102/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/polgirl2.htm |archive-date=2 November 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/stud1.htm |title=Marie Curie&nbsp;– Student in Paris (1891–1897) Part 1 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111028155638/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/stud1.htm |archive-date=28 October 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie – Student in Paris 2">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/stud2.htm |title=Marie Curie&nbsp;– Student in Paris (1891–1897) Part 2 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110912012411/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/stud2.htm |archive-date=12 September 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/resbr1.htm |title=Marie Curie &nbsp;– Research Breakthroughs (1807–1904) Part 1 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111028083750/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/resbr1.htm |archive-date=28 October 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 2">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/resbr2.htm |title=Marie Curie &nbsp;– Research Breakthroughs (1807–1904) Part 2 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111118025917/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/resbr2.htm |archive-date=18 November 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity 3">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/resbr3.htm |title=Marie Curie &nbsp;– Research Breakthroughs (1807–1904) Part 3 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111118025922/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/resbr3.htm |archive-date=18 November 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie Rec and Dis">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/recdis1.htm |title=Marie Curie &nbsp;– Recognition and Disappointment (1903–1905) Part 1 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111028155633/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/recdis1.htm |archive-date=28 October 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie Rec and Dis2">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/trag2.htm |title=Marie Curie &nbsp;– Recognition and Disappointment (1903–1905) Part 2 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110912055708/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/trag2.htm |archive-date=12 September 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie Tr and Ad">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/recdis2.htm |title=Marie Curie &nbsp;– Tragedy and Adjustment (1906–1910) Part 1 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026022331/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/recdis2.htm |archive-date=26 October 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie Tr and Ad2">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/trag1.htm |title=Marie Curie &nbsp;– Tragedy and Adjustment (1906–1910) Part 2 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111102133949/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/trag1.htm |archive-date=2 November 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie Sc and Rec">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/scandal1.htm |title=Marie Curie &nbsp;– Scandal and Recovery (1910–1913) Part 1 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111218035026/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/scandal1.htm |archive-date=18 December 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie Sc and Rec2">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/trag2.htm |title=Marie Curie &nbsp;– Scandal and Recovery (1910–1913) Part 2 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110912055708/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/trag2.htm |archive-date=12 September 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie War">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/war1.htm |title=Marie Curie &nbsp;– War Duty (1914–1919) Part 1 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111102230854/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/war1.htm |archive-date=2 November 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Marie Curie War2">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/war2.htm |title=Marie Curie &nbsp;– War Duty (1914–1919) Part 2 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110912173614/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/war2.htm |archive-date=12 September 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="The Radium Institute">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/radinst1.htm |title=Marie Curie&nbsp;– The Radium Institute (1919–1934) Part 1 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111028083629/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/radinst1.htm |archive-date=28 October 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="The Radium Institute 2">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/radinst2.htm |title=Marie Curie&nbsp;– The Radium Institute (1919–1934) Part 2 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111028083745/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/radinst2.htm |archive-date=28 October 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="The Radium Institute 3">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/radinst3.htm |title=Marie Curie&nbsp;– The Radium Institute (1919–1934) Part 3 |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928120440/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/radinst3.htm |archive-date=28 September 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="leg">{{cite web |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/curie/romleg.htm |title=Marie Curie and Her Legend |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120101142723/http://www.aip.org/history/curie/romleg.htm |archive-date=1 January 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Lewicki2002">{{cite journal |author=Ann M. Lewicki |title=Marie Sklodowska Curie in America, 1921 |volume=223 |issue=2 |year=2002 |pages=299–303 |journal=Radiology |doi=10.1148/radiol.2232011319 |pmid=11997527}}</ref>

<ref name="Proc. Am. Philos. Soc.1921">{{cite journal |title=Minutes |journal=[[Proc. Am. Philos. Soc.]] |volume=60 |issue=4 |pages=iii–xxiv |year=1921 |jstor=984523}}</ref>

<ref name="Nobel1">{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/marie-curie/facts/ |title=Marie Curie Facts |publisher=Nobelprize.org |access-date=2 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306042916/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/marie-curie/facts/ |archive-date=6 March 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="NYT1995">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/21/world/marie-curie-enshrined-in-pantheon.html |title=Marie Curie Enshrined in Pantheon |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=21 April 1995 |access-date=2 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120122093842/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/21/world/marie-curie-enshrined-in-pantheon.html |archive-date=22 January 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="LawrenceBerkeleyNationalLaboratory2000">{{cite web |url=http://www.lbl.gov/abc/wallchart/chapters/03/4.html |title=The Discovery of Radioactivity |publisher=Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |date=9 August 2000 |access-date=2 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120814105054/http://www.lbl.gov/abc/wallchart/chapters/03/4.html |archive-date=14 August 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Zwoliński">{{cite web |url=http://www.staff.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/ph/sci/msc.htm |first=Zbigniew |last=Zwoliński |title=Science in Poland – Maria Sklodowska-Curie |publisher=Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu |access-date=27 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120911201944/http://www.staff.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/ph/sci/msc.htm |archive-date=11 September 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="Barker2011">{{cite book |first=Dan |last=Barker |author-link=Dan Barker |title=The Good Atheist: Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ruzL8ogol2sC&pg=PA171 |date=2011 |publisher=Ulysses Press |isbn=978-1-56975-846-5 |page=171 |access-date=7 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151102033101/https://books.google.com/books?id=ruzL8ogol2sC&pg=PA171 |archive-date=2 November 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Borzendowski2009a">{{cite book |first=Janice |last=Borzendowski |title=Sterling Biographies: Marie Curie: Mother of Modern Physics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wmOaiSNrs0IC&pg=PT37 |date=2009 |publisher=Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. |isbn=978-1-4027-5318-3 |page=36 |access-date=7 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151130091338/https://books.google.com/books?id=wmOaiSNrs0IC&pg=PT37 |archive-date=30 November 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Borzendowski2009b">{{cite book |first=Janice |last=Borzendowski |title=Sterling Biographies: Marie Curie: Mother of Modern Physics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wmOaiSNrs0IC&pg=PT37 |date=2009 |publisher=Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. |isbn=978-1-4027-5318-3 |page=37 |access-date=7 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151130091338/https://books.google.com/books?id=wmOaiSNrs0IC&pg=PT37 |archive-date=30 November 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Chemistry International&nbsp;– Newsmagazine for IUPAC">{{cite web |url=http://www.iupac.org/publications/ci/2011/3301/3_boudia.html |title=Chemistry International&nbsp;– Newsmagazine for IUPAC |publisher=International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry |date=5 January 2011 |access-date=7 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111107222809/http://www.iupac.org/publications/ci/2011/3301/3_boudia.html |archive-date=7 November 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Cosmopolitanreview.com2011a">{{cite web |url=http://www.cosmopolitanreview.com/articles/40-musings/342-2011-the-year-of-marie-sklodowska-curie |title=2011 – The Year of Marie Skłodowska-Curie |work=Cosmopolitanreview.com |date=3 July 2011 |access-date=27 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814005026/http://cosmopolitanreview.com/articles/40-musings/342-2011-the-year-of-marie-sklodowska-curie |archive-date=14 August 2011}}</ref>

<ref name="Vincent Sheean1999">{{cite book |author1=Eve Curie |author2=Vincent Sheean |title=Madame Curie: A Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YOUMbHWaPr8C |date=1999 |publisher=Turtleback Books |isbn=978-0-613-18127-3 |page=389 |access-date=7 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151126114144/https://books.google.com/books?id=YOUMbHWaPr8C |archive-date=26 November 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="RoyalSociety">{{cite web |url=http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/podcast/interactive_periodic_table_transcripts/curium.asp |title=Curium |work=Chemistry in its element |publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry |access-date=27 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160809004547/http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/podcast/Interactive_Periodic_Table_Transcripts/Curium.asp |archive-date=9 August 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="IAEPoland">{{cite web |url=http://www.cyf.gov.pl/historia_ang.html |title=IEA – reaktor Maria |publisher=Institute of Atomic Energy, Poland |access-date=27 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319074606/http://www.cyf.gov.pl/historia_ang.html |archive-date=19 March 2012}}</ref>

<ref name="Brennan2012">{{cite web |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/154828/Les-Palmes-de-M-Schutz/overview |title=Les-Palmes-de-M-Schutz (1997) |access-date=27 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102151603/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/154828/Les-Palmes-de-M-Schutz/overview |archive-date=2 November 2012 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=[[The New York Times]] |author=Sandra Brennan |date=2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="Estreicher1938a">{{cite book |title=Polski słownik biograficzny, vol. 4 |page=111 |first=Tadeusz |last=Estreicher |author-link=Tadeusz Estreicher |language=pl |chapter=Curie, Maria ze Skłodowskich |year=1938 |title-link=Polski słownik biograficzny}}</ref>

<ref name="Estreicher1938b">{{cite book |title=Polski słownik biograficzny, vol. 4 |page=112 |first=Tadeusz |last=Estreicher |author-link=Tadeusz Estreicher |language=pl |chapter=Curie, Maria ze Skłodowskich |year=1938 |title-link=Polski słownik biograficzny}}</ref>

<ref name="Estreicher1938c">{{cite book |title=Polski słownik biograficzny, vol. 4 |page=113 |first=Tadeusz |last=Estreicher |author-link=Tadeusz Estreicher |language=pl |chapter=Curie, Maria ze Skłodowskich |year=1938 |title-link=Polski słownik biograficzny}}</ref>

<ref name="Estreicher1938d">{{cite book |title=Polski słownik biograficzny, vol. 4 |page=114 |first=Tadeusz |last=Estreicher |author-link=Tadeusz Estreicher |language=pl |chapter=Curie, Maria ze Skłodowskich |year=1938 |title-link=Polski słownik biograficzny}}</ref>

<ref name="Quinn1996">{{cite book |first=Susan |last=Quinn |title=Marie Curie: A Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bteAVVwkeUIC&pg=PA176 |date=1996 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-201-88794-5 |pages=176, 203 |access-date=7 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151031071144/https://books.google.com/books?id=bteAVVwkeUIC&pg=PA176 |archive-date=31 October 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Cosmopolitan2011b">{{cite web |url=http://www.cosmopolitanreview.com/articles/41-reviews/341-radioactive-a-review |title=Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, a Tale of Love and Fallout |work=Cosmopolitanreview.com |date=3 July 2011 |access-date=27 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814005116/http://cosmopolitanreview.com/articles/41-reviews/341-radioactive-a-review |archive-date=14 August 2011}}</ref>

<ref name="ShipmanWilsonTodd2012">{{cite book |author1=James Shipman |author2=Jerry D. Wilson |author3=Aaron Todd |title=An Introduction to Physical Science |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dxoM93eNPVEC&pg=PA263 |date=2012 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-1-133-10409-4 |page=263 |access-date=7 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151127120120/https://books.google.com/books?id=dxoM93eNPVEC&pg=PA263 |archive-date=27 November 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Nobel">{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/nobelprize_facts.html |title=Nobel Prize Facts |publisher=Nobelprize.org |date=22 April 2011 |access-date=7 September 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120901134144/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/nobelprize_facts.html |archive-date=1 September 2012}}</ref>

<ref name="Pasachoff1996">{{cite book |first=Naomi |last=Pasachoff |title=Marie Curie:And the Science of Radioactivity: And the Science of Radioactivity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mVCTHbdstdQC&pg=PA93 |date=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-509214-1 |page=93 |access-date=7 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151128164641/https://books.google.com/books?id=mVCTHbdstdQC&pg=PA93 |archive-date=28 November 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Miłosz1983">{{cite book |title=The History of Polish Literature |last=Miłosz |first=Czesław |author-link=Czesław Miłosz |year=1983 |publisher=University of California Press |page=291 |isbn=978-0-520-04477-7 |quote=Undoubtedly the most important novelist of [[Positivism in Poland|the period]] was Bolesław Prus...}}</ref>

<ref name="FranklinInstitute">{{cite web |url=http://www.fi.edu/winners/show_results.faw?award=CRESS |title=Franklin Laureate Database |work=The Franklin Institute Awards |publisher=The Franklin Institute |access-date=11 September 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121212165125/http://www.fi.edu/winners/show_results.faw?award=CRESS |archive-date=12 December 2012}}</ref>

}}
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== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |author=Robert William Reid |title=Marie Curie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p81XAAAAYAAJ |year=1974 |publisher=New American Library |access-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=15 March 2016}}
* Wojciech A. Wierzewski, "''Mazowieckie korzenie Marii''" ("Maria's Mazowsze Roots"), ''[[Gwiazda Polarna]]'' (Pole Star), a Polish-American biweekly, vol. 100, no. 13 (21 June 2008), pp.&nbsp;16–17. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090321193811/http://www.gwiazdapolarna.com/czytaj.php?nr=813&cat=4&art=04-01.txt |date=21 March 2009 }}
* L. Pearce Williams, "Curie, Pierre and Marie", ''[[Encyclopedia Americana]]'', [[Danbury, Connecticut]], [[Grolier]], Inc., 1986, vol. 8, pp.&nbsp;331–332.
* {{cite book |first=Barbara |last=Goldsmith |title=Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xuYSLk_tHfgC |year=2005 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-05137-7 |access-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=15 March 2016}}
{{refend}}
-->

== Further reading ==
=== Nonfiction ===
* {{cite book |last=Curie |first=Eve |title=Madame Curie: A Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_rTKVFr52a0C |date=2001 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-306-81038-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Curie |first=Marie |author-link=Marie Curie |year=1921 |title=The Discovery of Radium |title-link=s:The Discovery of Radium |location=Poughkeepsie |publisher=Vassar College}}
* {{Cite book |last=Dzienkiewicz |first=Marta |year=2017 |title=Polish Pioneers: Book of Prominent Poles |translator=Monod-Gayraud, Agnes |others=Illustrations: Rzezak, Joanna; Karski, Piotr |location=Warsaw |publisher=Wydawnictwo Dwie Siostry |isbn=9788365341686 |oclc=1060750234}}
* {{cite book |last=Giroud |first=Françoise |date=1986 |title=Marie Curie: A Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UqPuAAAAMAAJ |translator=[[Lydia Davis]] |location=New York |publisher=Holmes & Meier |isbn=978-0-8419-0977-9 |oclc=12946269}}
* {{cite book |last=Kaczorowska |first=Teresa |title=Córka mazowieckich równin, czyli, Maria Skłodowska-Curie z Mazowsza |trans-title=Daughter of the Mazovian Plains: Maria Skłodowska–Curie of Mazowsze |language=pl |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTCkXwAACAAJ |year=2011 |publisher=Związek Literatów Polskich, Oddział w Ciechanowie |access-date=15 March 2016 |isbn=978-83-89408-36-5}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Moskowitz |first=Clara |author-link=Clara Moskowitz |title=Marie Curie's Hidden Network: How she recruited a generation of women scientists |magazine=Scientific American |volume=332 |issue=2 |date=February 2025 |pages=78–79 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican022025-3K76AqOE4WSO46n3VMzSTu}}
* {{cite book |last=Opfell |first=Olga S. |title=The Lady Laureates : Women Who Have Won the Nobel Prize |url=https://archive.org/details/ladylaureateswom0000opfe |url-access=registration |year=1978 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |location=Metuchen, N.J.& London |isbn=978-0-8108-1161-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ladylaureateswom0000opfe/page/147 147–164]}}
* {{cite book |last=Pasachoff |first=Naomi |title=Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mVCTHbdstdQC |date=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-509214-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Quinn |first=Susan |title=Marie Curie: A Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bteAVVwkeUIC&pg=PA330 |date=1996 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-201-88794-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Redniss |first=Lauren |title=Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HVL4QwAACAAJ |date=2010 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-135132-7}}
* [[Dava Sobel|Sobel, Dava]] (2024). ''The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science''. {{ISBN|978-0802163820}}. {{OCLC|1437997660}}.
* {{cite book |last=Wirten |first=Eva Hemmungs |title=Making Marie Curie: Intellectual Property and Celebrity Culture in an Age of Information |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0-bIoAEACAAJ&q=Making+Marie+Curie |year=2015 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-23584-4 |access-date=15 March 2016}}

=== Fiction ===
* {{Cite book |title=The Book about Blanche and Marie |first=Per |last=Olov Enquist |isbn=978-1-58567-668-2 |year=2006 |publisher=Overlook |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/bookaboutblanche00enqu}} A 2004 novel by [[Per Olov Enquist]] featuring Maria Skłodowska-Curie, [[neurologist]] [[Jean-Martin Charcot]], and his ''[[Salpêtrière]]'' patient "Blanche" ([[Marie Wittman]]). The English translation was published in 2006.

== External links ==
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