Marie Curie

Born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw in 1867, she later moved to Paris to continue her studies and built a remarkable scientific career in France. Working in a time when women faced major barriers in higher education and research, she earned degrees in physics and mathematics and went on to become one of the most influential scientists of the modern age.

With Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, she received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for research on radiation phenomena. She later won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on radium and polonium, becoming the first person ever awarded two Nobel Prizes in different scientific fields. Her research helped open new paths in both physics and chemistry, and the term "radioactivity" is closely tied to her work.

Beyond the laboratory, she also supported the use of X-ray technology during World War I, helping bring radiology to wounded soldiers. She died in 1934, but her legacy endured through science, medicine, and education, and even through her family: her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie would also go on to win a Nobel Prize.