On Nobel laureate Marie Curie's 88th death anniversary, know about her life & achievements

Nobel Prize awardee Marie Curie was born Maria Salomea Sklodowska on 7 November 1867, in Warsaw, Poland. Being a daughter of a secondary-school teacher, Curie attained mostly general education in local schools. Curie was the youngest of five children. She had a tough upbringing after her mother Wladyslw passed away due to tuberculosis when Curie was just 10 years old.

Witnessing a tough life, Curie grew up to be quiet, dignified, and unassuming, as the Nobel Prize biography website describes. Living in a war-torn, male-dominated society, Curie was largely drawn to education. Nevertheless, she was denied admission to higher education in Poland on the pretext that she was a woman. As a teenager, she earned a meagre living by tutoring and working as a governess.

First woman to win Nobel Prize in two different subjects

In 1903, Curie received the first Nobel Prize for Physics for her study of spontaneous radiation discovered by Becquerel. She then succeeded her husband to become the Head of the Physics Department at Sorbonne. Later in 1911, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry "in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium," said the Les Prix Nobel book series. In 1914, Curie was made the Director of Curie Laboratory in the Radium Institute of the University of Paris. She discovered methods to separate radium from radioactive residues to allow the careful study of characterisation and therapeutic properties in particular.

After suffering from a short illness, Curie passed away on 4 July 1934.

Curie's inspirational journey to pursue higher education

Curie developed a love for science while studying experiments with her father Boguska. A bright student, Curie graduated high school with a gold medal on 12 June 1883. She believed in Catholicism during her early life but after the death of her mother and oldest sister Zofia, she became an agnostic. Gradually, she became involved with student revolutionary organisations and found it prudent to leave Warsaw. Around 1891, she was invited to stay with her sister in Paris, where she began studying Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics at the University of Paris.

Curie later earned Licentiateships in Physics and Mathematical Sciences. While she was just beginning her career in magnetic properties of various metals, Curie met her husband Pierre Curie, a professor at the School of Physics in Paris. The couple got married in 1895. The academics and researchers conducted enthralling scientific experiments under difficult laboratory conditions, which were both poor in those days. In 1896, Curie was inspired by Henri Becquerel's discovery of radioactivity. Her determination, patience, and brilliance pushed her towards the pinnacle of her career when she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for her research in the field of radiation.

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