Marie Curie

Arguably one of the most well-known female scientists, Marie Curie always inspires me. Not only did she impact and influence our society when she was alive, but she continues to be pivotal to the search for a cure to cancer.

Her story begins in 1867 in Warsaw, Poland, where she was the youngest of 5 children. Both her parents were schoolteachers; however, when her mother died, her father could not afford to pay for her education. Thus, she started to teach and train children in private households, allowing her to explore her passion for reading and studying. In order to become independent, Marie would have to become a schoolteacher, so she moved to France with her sister in 1891. Immediately, she entered Sorbonne University in Paris in order to study physics and mathematics. A few years later, she met another scientist Pierre Curie, from whom she got her last name.

Together, they became research workers at the School of Chemistry and Physics in Paris where they began to work on invisible rays given off by uranium. Expanding on the discoveries of Professor Henri Becquerel, she found that samples of a mineral named pitchblende were more radioactive than pure Uranium. Even though other scientists doubted that she discovered a new element, she persisted and kept working to discover the element. After grounding up samples of pitchblende and dissolving them in acid, Pierre and Marie uncovered a black powder much more radioactive than uranium. They named this new element Polonium which has an atomic number of 84 on the periodic table. However, the scientists realized that there was another element in the mineral, and, through years of hard work and exposure to radiation, they gathered evidence to prove the existence of radium, the new element.

In 1903, she and Pierre were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Physics along with Henri Becquerel for their achievements in radioactivity. Despite struggling with the death of her husband a few years later, Marie did not stop. She took over his job as a professor at Sorbonne University and started to teach where he had left off. In 1911, she attained another Nobel Peace Prize in Chemistry, leading to Sorbonne creating the first radium institutes where Marie directed the study of radioactivity. To diagnose injuries on the battlefield during World War I, she created small, mobile X-ray units called "Petits Curies." Today, using her significant development, doctors use similar x-ray machines in hospitals. The former French President ordered Marie and Pierre Curie to be reburied in the Pantheon which is for France's most revered dead; she was the first woman to be awarded a place in the Pantheon.

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.

Marie Curie's story truly is one of perseverance and an innate desire to gain more and more knowledge. From having to obtain an education with no money to fighting through intense pain while studying radium, she reminds us that it may not be easy but, with confidence and dedication, it will be possible.