There are characters throughout history who manage to sneak into common memory . Some do it for the life they led, others for what they achieved with their work and others for how revolutionary they were for their time. These three characteristics are found in Marie Curie , a woman who fought all her life to be able to dedicate herself to her true passion: science.
Who would be one of Poland’s great scientists as an adult was born into a lower-class family and discovered how much science fascinated her when she was very young . Her father, a physics teacher, encouraged her to study despite the prohibitions and social stigmas of the time. Being the youngest daughter, the money for higher education went to her sister, but fate would have her marry before entering university and Marie could travel to Paris to study Physics and Mathematics. From that moment, Marie Curie stood out as an extraordinarily intelligent and capable woman .
Together with her husband, Pierre Curie, she would carry out some of her most important research, including the discovery of two radioactive elements, polonium and radium . From that moment the Curies would dedicate a large part of their career to expanding the scarce knowledge that they had about radioactivity and these would be worth sharing the Nobel Prize in 1903 and alone for her in 1911 (Pierre died in 1906 due to an accident). Marie Curie would break the conceptions that society regarding women and science on numerous occasions and her contributions would end up being recognized and opening doors that until then remained closed for the few scientists.
With exceptional talent and intelligence, an admirable devotion to science, and a fighting spirit that helped her overcome all obstacles that came her way, Marie Curie is an icon of history and science. She had the courage to follow her dreams, she proved her worth to a society that didn’t quite accept her and broke its reluctance towards women . We remember her with this gallery about her life.
