Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Marie Curie, was Polish-French physicist. She was born in 1867 in Warsaw, Congress Poland, but in 1891 she moved to Paris, France to continue her studies. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize (Physics in 1903¹⁾, shared with her partner and husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, and Chemistry in 1911²⁾), and the only person that win Nobel Prizes in two scientific fields. She was also the first woman to become professor at the University of Paris. Se received numerous other awards and honorary degrees³⁾.

She was awarded Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 with Pierre Curie, for research on the radiation phenomena, discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel. Se coined term radioactivity, describing emission of ionizing radiation by some heavy elements^{4) 5)}.

Marie Sklodowska was awarded second Nobel Award for discovery and researching nature of two new elements - polonium (named after her native country, occupied by Russia at the time) and radium (named after radiation)⁶⁾.

Marie received Nobel Prize with her husband, Pierre. Their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 shared with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Second daughter, Ève Curie, was the only family member who didn't become scientist and didn't win Nobel Prize, but her husband, Henry Richardson Labouisse, received Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 on behalf of UNICEF⁷⁾. Ève often joked: “There were five Nobel Prizes in my family, two for my mother, one for my father, one for sister and brother-in-law and one for my husband. Only I was not successful”⁸⁾

Damaging effects of ionising radiation were not known at the time, so there was no safety measures known. Marie Curie papers from 1890s, even her cookbooks, are still considered too dangerous to handle, and will be for 1,500 years⁹⁾. She was also exposed with first unshielded X-rays machines during First World War, when she served as a radiologist in field hospitals. She died in 1934 for aplastic anaemia, result of years of exposure to radiation through her work in labs and hospitals. Also, her daughter Irène Curie died 1956 from an acute leukemia¹⁰⁾, linked to her exposure to polonium and X-rays.