Maria Skłodowska-Curie, her life and work - the 150 anniversary of her birthday.

Maria Skłodowska was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw (Poland). Her parents were teachers. Maria’s mother has died in 1878 of tuberculosis. In 1893 and 1894, respectively, Maria was awarded master’s degrees in physics and in mathematics from the Sorbonne University. In 1895 Maria married Pierre Curie. In 1897 their daughter Irene was born. Maria investigated rays emitted by uranium salts. She hypothesized that the radiation come from atom and called this phenomenon “radioactivity”. In 1898, Maria and Pierre discovered new radioactive elements polonium and radium. In 1902 she isolated pure radium chloride and defined radium atomic mass. In June 1903, Maria supervised by Professor Lippmann was awarded her doctorate in physics from the Sorbonne University of Paris after presentation of the thesis “Investigation of radioactive bodies”. In December 1903, Maria was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, along with her husband Pierre and Henri Becquerel, for their work on radioactivity. In 1904, the daughter Eve was born. On 19 April 1906, Pierre was killed in a road accident in Paris. In 1910 Maria isolated radium as a pure metal. She also defined an international standard for radioactive emissions (curie), published her fundamental results on radioactivity and textbook of radiology. She also defined the international pattern of radium. In 1911, she won her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, for her discovery of radium and polonium. In 1914 she was appointed director in the Radium Institute in Paris. During World War I, Maria became the director of the Red Cross Radiology Service and set up France’s first military radiology centre. In May 1932 she has attended the official opening ceremony of the Radium Institute in Warsaw. On 4 July 1934, Maria Skłodowska-Curie has died aged 66 years in Sancellemoz sanatorium (France) of aplastic anemia.