Marie Curie Essay Example

Marie Curie, a polish scientist and chemist discovered two new elements along with her husband Pierre; the Radium and Polonium. Marie Curie is the first woman to win the prestigious Nobel Prize twice, one for Physics, and the other for Chemistry, and also the first woman to be the professor in University of Paris. In 1903 the Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded jointly to Henry Becquerel, and Marie and Pierre Curie for discovering radioactivity, and Marie Curie received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for discovering radium and polonium in 1911 . She is also conferred the title Most Inspirational Female Scientist of All Time.
Marie was awarded her Doctor of Science degree from the University of Paris in 1903, under the supervision of Becquerel . Apart from the two Nobel prizes, Marie has received numerous awards for her contribution to science. For contributing in the branch of Chemistry, she received the Davy Medal in 1903, the Matteucci Medal an Italian award in 1904 for contribution in Physics, the Actonian Prize in 1907 for her essay Recherches sur les Substances Radioactives, Elliott Cresson Medal by Franklin Institute in 1909, and the Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical Society in 1921. The unit of radioactivity has the Curie symbol (Ci), which is an honor to her contributions, and the transuranic radioactive chemical element with atomic number 96 is named curium. In her lifespan she received 15 gold medal awards, 19 degrees, and many other honors .

She is credited to have termed the words radioactive and radioactivity. Marie’s

contributions such as the discovery of Radium and other key elements help us out every day, especially when getting an x-ray . She recognized a standard measure of radioactivity to compare outcomes from various laboratories in the world, and discovered medical applications of Radium and dedicated herself to health treatments and diagnoses during World War I. Marie worked as an X-ray technician during World War I, taught radiology and prepared mobile X-ray vans to assist in the war, and later became the head of the Paris Institute of Radium in 1914 founded the Curie Institute .

Works Cited

Gingo, Matt. Marie Curie. November 2000. Web. 4 June 2007. <http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/mariecurie.html>.
Hedrick, Linda. "Marie Curie - A Woman of Firsts." 23 August 2011. International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. PDF. <https://www.ilab.org/eng/documentation/608-marie_curie_-_a_woman_of_firsts.html>.
Kułakowski, Andrzej. "The contribution of Marie Skłodowska-Curie to the development of modern oncology." Springer Open Choice 400.6 (2011): 1583-1586. PDF. 18 Feb 2011. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3093546/>.