Marie Curie

Introduction & Top Questions
Early life
Move to Paris, Pierre Curie, and first Nobel Prize
Death of Pierre and second Nobel Prize
Later work

Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Marie Skłodowska (Marie Curie) and her sister Bronisława Skłodowska

Watch Alan Alda Discussing the Remarkable Life of Marie Curie, the Subject of His Play Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie

Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, and Gustave Bémont

Pierre and Marie Curie with their daughter Irène

At a Glance

Marie Curie summary

Marie Curie Timeline

Marie Curie seated in a black dress, resting her head on her hand and looking toward the camera in a formal portrait.

Marie Curie’s Achievements

Quizzes

Model of a molecule. Atom, Biology, Molecular Structure, Science, Science and Technology. Homepage 2010 arts and entertainment, history and society

Science Quiz

Michael Faraday (L) English physicist and chemist (electromagnetism) and John Frederic Daniell (R) British chemist and meteorologist who invented the Daniell cell.

Faces of Science

Italian-born physicist Dr. Enrico Fermi draws a diagram at a blackboard with mathematical equations. circa 1950.

Physics and Natural Law

Polish-born French physicist Marie Curie poses in her Paris laboratory; undated photo.

Radium Girls Quiz

Related Questions

How did Marie Curie and Irène Curie use X-rays during World War I?
How did Marie Curie contribute to medical uses of radioactive substances?
How did Marie Curie die?
How did Marie Curie help pay for her sister Bronisława’s medical studies?
How did Marie Curie isolate radium from pitchblende?
How did Pierre Curie die in 1906?
How did Pierre Curie’s death change Marie Curie’s career?
What book on radioactivity did Marie Curie publish in 1910?
What challenges did Marie Curie face while seeking an education in Poland?
What discovery by Henri Becquerel inspired Marie Curie’s research?
What happened during Marie Curie’s 1921 visit to the United States?
What institute opened in Warsaw in 1932 with Marie Curie’s support?
What objects and places are preserved at the Curie Museum in Paris?
What role did Marie Curie have in the League of Nations?
What teaching position did Marie Curie hold at the École Normale Supérieure for girls in Sèvres?
What term did Marie Curie coin for the emission of penetrating rays from certain atoms?
What was Marie Curie’s birth name?
What was the purpose of the Radium Institute founded by Marie Curie in Paris?
When and where was Marie Curie born?
When did Marie Curie become a professor at the Sorbonne?
When did Marie Curie isolate metallic radium?
When did Marie Curie meet Pierre Curie?
When did Marie Curie move to Paris to study at the Sorbonne?
When was radium discovered by Marie Curie and Pierre Curie?
Which subjects did Marie Curie study at the Sorbonne?
Which two elements did Marie Curie and Pierre Curie discover in 1898?
Who gave Marie Curie a gram of radium during her visit to the United States?
Who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics with Marie Curie?
Why did Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot-Curie win the 1935 Nobel Prize for Chemistry?
Why did Marie Curie believe strong radioactive sources were important for scientific research?
Why did Marie Curie investigate the mineral pitchblende?
Why did Marie Curie name the element polonium?
Why did Marie Curie receive the 1911 Nobel Prize for Chemistry?
Why is Marie Curie the only woman to have won Nobel Prizes in two different fields?
Why was Marie Curie’s appointment at the Sorbonne historically important?
Why was Marie Curie’s first Nobel Prize historically important?
Why were Marie Curie’s ashes placed in the Panthéon in Paris?
What did Marie Curie accomplish?
What awards did Marie Curie win?
Why was Marie Curie important?
What is Marie Curie most famous for?
What did Marie Curie discover?
How did Marie Curie die?
What is Michel H. Devoret known for?
What was the key experiment conducted by Michel H. Devoret, John Clarke, and John M. Martinis at Berkeley?
What did Henri B. Kagan win the Nobel Prize for?
What is the significance of Henri B. Kagan’s discovery in asymmetric reactions?

Science Physics Physicists

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External Websites

The Nobel Prize - Marie and Pierre Curie and the discovery of polonium and radium
Atomic Heritage Foundation - Marie Curie
Science History Institute - Marie Sklodowska Curie
Europeana - Maria Skłodowska-Curie
ABC Listen - Big Ideas - The remarkable life of Marie Curie and the women scientists she inspired Â— with Dava Sobel
The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College - Marie Curie: The Quantum Matriarch
BBC - Witness History - Marie Curie
ABC listen - ABC Radio National|Big Ideas - The remarkable life of Marie Curie and the women scientists she inspired Â— with Dava Sobel
Lemelson-MIT Program - Marie Curie
The Franklin Institute - Case Files: Marie Curie
Potters Wax Museum - Marie Curie
The Nobel Prize - Marie Curie
Famous Scientists - Biography of Marie Curie
National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Marie Curie (1867Â–1934): Twice Nobel Laureate and Her Enduring Legacy in Radiation Medicine
LiveScience - Marie Curie: Facts and biography

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Marie Curie - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
Marie Curie - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Marie Curie

Polish-born French physicist

Also known as: Maria Salomea Skłodowska

Written and fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 4, 2026 •History

Marie Curie (born November 7, 1867, Warsaw, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire—died July 4, 1934, near Sallanches, France) was a Polish-born French physicist, famous for her work on radioactivity and twice a winner of the Nobel Prize. With Henri Becquerel and her husband, Pierre Curie, she was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics. She was the sole winner of the 1911 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. She was the first woman to win a...

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