Marie Curie was a woman of many firsts and awards thanks to her research and discoveries in the field of radioactivity. However, her life started with tragedy, having lost her sister when she was a young girl and then her mother 4 years after. She then threw herself into her work, becoming known for her intense work ethic; often foregoing food and sleep to study. After graduating high school, this intensity caused a mental breakdown. so it was sort of a good thing that it wasn't until 1891 that she was able to move to Paris and attend college.
It took going to Paris because in Russia and Poland, she lived in Warsaw, women couldn't attend college. In Paris she attended Sorbonne where she studied chemistry and physics. She became the first woman to teach, at the same school she attended, after obtaining her licentiateships in Physics and Mathematical Sciences. Sorbonne is also where she met her husband, Pierre Curie. Together, the two of them made studying radioactive materials a couples activity. Specifically, they focused on uranium ore pitchblende which is actually more radioactive than the uranium extracted from it.
Through their research, they figured out that the reason behind this was because the pitchblende had to have a trace of some sort of unknown radioactive component that was way more radioactive than uranium. In 1898, on the 26th of December (a little bit of a late Christmas gift), Marie Curie announced the existence of that new material. Finally in 1902, they were able to isolate not only one new chemical element, but two- Polonium and Radium. Bonus! The next year she became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and hers was in physics. The Curie's were also awarded the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in the same year.
Sadly, only 3 years after their award win, Pierre passed away and Marie Curie continued his work, which awarded her another first- this time she was the first professor of General Physics at Sorbonne. Being the workaholic she was, she of course continued the research that her and Pierre started. In that same year she was appointed as the Director of the Curie Laboratory which was, rightfully, located within the Radium Institute of the University of Paris. In 1911 she pulled another first, and this time an only, by winning her second Nobel Prize in Chemistry this time thanks to her work in isolating pure radium. She is still the only person to win this prize in two different sciences.
During her life she was an active promoter of using radium to relieve suffering, including during WWI. Curie and her daughter Irene threw themselves into this, developing small, portable x-ray machines that could be taken on the battlefield to diagnose soldier's injuries. In October of 1914, these machines were ready for Curie and Irene to take, themselves, onto the frontlines to clear casualty stations. In 1921, US President Harding gifted her one gram of radium on the behalf of The Women of America to recognize Curie's contributions to science. In 1929, another US President, this time it was Hoover, gifted Curie $50,000 that had been collected and donated by the American Friends of Science so that she could purchase radium for the lab.
1944, 10 years after Marie Curie succumbed to Leukemia, a new Element (number 96) was discovered and named Curium in her honor. Later on, in 1995, Curie's remains were moved to the French National Mausoleum. Even posthumously she was attaining firsts as she was the first woman to be given that honor on her own merits.
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