Curie, Marie(also Marja Curie, Manya Curie; Madame Curie; nee Sklodowska)

French (Polish-born) chemist and physicist

with Pierre Curie, co-discovered elements polonium 1898, radium 1898

discovered radioactivity of thorium

1895 - Wife of Pierre Curie 

1906 - 1st woman to teach at the Sorbonne

1910 - with Andre Debierne, co-discovered pure metallic form of radium

1903 - Nobel Prize in Physics

1911 - Nobel Prize in Chemistry

1934 - Died of leukemia due to longtime research exposure to radioactivity

• "All my life through, the new sights of nature made me rejoice like a child."
• "Humanity needs practical men, who get the most out of their work, and, without forgetting the general good, safeguard their own interests. But humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit. A well-organized society should assure to such workers the efficient means of accomplishing their task, in a life freed from material care and freely consecrated to research."
• "Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."
• "Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas."
• "Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained."