author
Pierre Curie
1859–1906
A brilliant French physicist, he helped lay the groundwork for modern physics through discoveries in magnetism, crystallography, piezoelectricity, and radioactivity. His partnership with Marie Curie led to some of the most famous scientific breakthroughs of the early 20th century.
1 Audiobook
Recent research on radioactivity
by Pierre Curie
About the author
Born in Paris on May 15, 1859, Pierre Curie showed scientific talent early and went on to build an impressive career in physics. Before his best-known work on radioactivity, he made important contributions to crystallography and magnetism, and with his brother Jacques he helped discover piezoelectricity—the link between mechanical pressure and electric charge.
Pierre Curie is most widely remembered for his research with Marie Curie. Together they investigated radioactive substances and, alongside Henri Becquerel's earlier discovery of spontaneous radioactivity, helped open an entirely new field of science. In 1903, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, and Becquerel shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for this work.
He became a professor at the University of Paris, but his life was cut short when he died in a street accident in Paris on April 19, 1906. Even so, his influence lasted far beyond his lifetime, both through his own discoveries and through the scientific legacy he built with Marie Curie.