For example, during World War I, she promoted the use of X-rays as a diagnostic tool, supplying hospitals with radiology equipment and training 150 technicians. Ĭurie became extremely interested in exploring the medical uses of radiation. This pioneering work demonstrated that radiation is a powerful tool with a wide range of potential applications from the exploration of atoms, to radiochemistry, to radiobiology and radiation oncology. Their landmark discovery of two new elements - radium and polonium - earned Curie a second Nobel Prize in 1911. ![]() After Pierre’s tragic, accidental death in 1906, Marie was appointed as the first female professor at the Sorbonne where she continued groundbreaking research. At the Nobel Prize awards ceremony, the president of the Swedish Academy diminished Marie Curie’s role in his remarks, suggesting that she had been her husband’s helpmate. Initially, only her husband and the physicist Henri Becquerel were proposed to receive this prestigious award, but Pierre Curie insisted that Marie be recognized for her contributions. Their research led to a novel theory called “radioactivity,” a term that Madame Curie coined, and won them a Nobel Prize in physics in 1903. In Paris, she met Pierre Curie, worked in his lab and they began an extraordinary partnership, marrying in 1895. To pay for her studies and support her family, she tutored students and served as a governess. While Curie set the stage for women to enter scientific fields that had only been open to men, a century later, many barriers still impede women attaining leadership positions in science and medicine, with females comprising just 18 percent of medical school deans and significantly underrepresented as students, tenured faculty and department chairs in other STEM fields.Īs we reflect on Curie’s legacy and the progress that has been made, many actions are still needed to prevent and cure cancer as well as to advance the careers of women in science and medicine.īorn in Poland, Marie Skłodowska immigrated to France to study physics, chemistry and math at the University of Paris because women were not permitted to attend the University of Warsaw. Despite winning an unprecedented second Nobel Prize, she was never admitted to the all-male French Academy of Sciences. Throughout her career, Curie faced significant prejudice and discrimination as a woman and as a Polish immigrant to France. Additionally, generations of women in science and medicine have followed in her footsteps inspired by Curie’s remarkable accomplishments, passion for research and perseverance. heralding a century of innovations in the fight against cancer, a leading cause of death worldwide that will affect one in three Americans over their lifetimes.Ĭurie’s pioneering research on radioactivity earned her two Nobel Prizes and paved the way for a new era of cancer treatment. This year commemorates the centenary of the iconic Marie Curie’s historic visit to Washington D.C.
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