Her application for membership in the Academy of Sciences in 1910 was rejected. "Now she was a celebrated woman of accomplishment without a husband to make the celebrity acceptable," Ms.
Their discoveries brought the Curies international fame with the awarding of the Nobel Prize in 1903.įollowing Pierre's death in 1906, Marie's status changed again. "It is not an exaggeration to say that this couple working in their makeshift laboratory had changed the face of the world," Ms. By July 1903, they had isolated a new element, and they wrote, "We propose to call it polonium after the name of the country of origin of one of us." Soon they had isolated another new element, radium. "Marie had an independence she might not have had at the Sorbonne, where she probably would have been expected to elaborate some superior's work," Ms. Pierre and Marie married and began their historic collaboration on the nature of radioactivity at a small institute out of the mainstream of the scientific establishment. Hypnotized by our dreams - your patriotic dream, our humanitarian dream and our scientific dream." Pierre wrote, "It would be a beautiful thing if we could spend our lives near each other. Quinn read from Curie's diary: "It was a life which gave me a very precious sense of liberty and independence." One of two women in a graduating class of several thousand, Curie ranked first in physics.Īlthough she returned to Poland, intending to work there and care for her father, she was persuaded by fellow scientist Pierre Curie to return to Paris. In 1891 it was her turn to pursue a university degree in Paris, where she defied convention by living alone. "Marie was faithful to her national memory and the Polish cause throughout her life," she said.Ĭurie worked several years as a governess to finance her older sister's studies at the Sorbonne. Although her family was not wealthy, both parents were well educated and instilled in their children a love of learning and a deep patriotism. Quinn emphasizes Curie's formative years in Poland. The biography has been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Fawcett Book Prize.
The European Division hosted an evening program on May 4, featuring Susan Quinn, author of Marie Curie, A Life, to mark the centenary of the discovery of radium and polonium.
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