Pierre Curie

Born in Paris on May 15, 1859, Pierre Curie was a French physicist known for careful, original research. Early in his career he worked closely with his brother Jacques Curie, and together they made important discoveries in crystallography and piezoelectricity, showing how pressure can generate electric charge in certain crystals.

He later carried out major studies of magnetism and became a respected laboratory researcher and teacher in Paris. After marrying Marie Skłodowska Curie in 1895, he joined her research into radioactive substances. Their work, alongside Henri Becquerel’s earlier discovery, led to the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Pierre Curie died in Paris on April 19, 1906, after a street accident. Even so, his name remains closely tied to some of the most important scientific advances of the turn of the 20th century, and to one of science’s most remarkable research partnerships.