Maria Sklodowska-Curie
1867-1934

Madame Curie was born Maria Sklodowska-Curie on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland. Moving to Paris in 1891, she changed her name to Marie, and upon marrying the French physicist Pierre Curie, became Madame Curie. Madame Curie surpassed many boundaries set for women of her time. Let us briefly look at a list of her "first" accomplishments, before exploring more carefully who Madame Curie was, and how her extraordinary character was formed.

Five important accomplishments:


• Madame Curie was the first woman to graduate with a degree in Physics at the Sorbonne in 1893, and received a second degree from the Sorbonne in 1894 in Mathematics.
  
  
• In 1893, Madame Curie was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize, and the only woman Nobel laureate in science for many years until her daughter Irene Joliot-Curie won the prize for physics for producing artificial radioactivity.
  
  
• Marie Curie was the first woman professor at the University of Sorbonne in Paris.
  
  
• In 1911, Madame Curie received a second Nobel Prize in chemistry for the discovery and isolation of polonium and radium. No other laureate had ever received two Nobel prizes.
  
  
• In 1922, Marie Curie was elected to the French Academy of Medicine for her contributions to radiological medicine, becoming the first woman member in the 224-year history of the Institut de France.