C
U
M A RIE
I
E
Who is Maria Sklodowska?.....
Maria Sklodowska (sklaw DAWF Skah) was the last child of Bronislawa adn Wladyslaw Sklodowski. She was born a polish girl from Warsaw, Poland on November 7, 1867. She received her drive for wanting to gain more knowledge from her parents. Her mother, Bronislawa, was a head of a school. Her father, Wladyslaw, was a teacher at an all boys' school teaching the arts of math and physics. So it is clear to see where she received her love for physics. Her family and friends would call her "Manya". At this time, Russia was making it hard on the Pro-Polish society. This cost led to Maria father losing his job. After high school, Maria wanted to futher her education and she did so by moving to Paris; where she started spelling and saying her name like the French.....Marie. She also met the man that would later be her husband and side-kick in radioactive study.
The Education that Expand her Mind
  
Living in Warsaw Marie attended a secondary school. She opened her mind to science and had an excellent academic record. Which put Marie at the top of her class. She finished the secodary school in 1882 when she was only 15 years old; she received a gold metal and a diploma. Due to her family expenses, she had to sit out of school for awhile. When she turned 24 she turned to Paris for educational purposes. She attended Sorbonne where she studied math, physics, and chemistry. Putting her studies at the top of her to do list, Marie finally received her master's degree in physics in 1893. A year later she got a second degree in math. While working on a higher degree in math, she started experimenting with the things that were soon to make her memorable for years to come. She used Professor Pierre Curie's lab to research radioactive substances. Their partnership in the research and their love for science drew the two closer to each other. In July 1895, they finally got married. In 1903, Marie recieved her doctorate in physics. These degree and her research landed her the title of the most famous woman of physics.
Radioactive Breakthrough

Because of Wilhelm Roentgen discovery of X-rays and Henri Becquerel the discover of uranium radiation, led Marie to discover the behavior of uranium and thorium. She would later call this "radioactivity" coming from the root word ray in Latin. Marie did her early experiments in a Pierre's lab at Paris Municipal School of Industrial Physics.


Before Marie and Pierre met, Pierre and his brother built a type of electrometer ----it measured low electrical currents. Marie decided to put this invention to use. From Becquerel's reference about electrical effects of uranium rays, Marie came up with her own Hypothesis: "the emission of ray by uranium compounds could be an atomic property of the element uranium--something built into the very structure of its atom." Science could now define the structure of the atom and understand atomic structure. Marie had ran tests on all elements (known at the time) to see if other elements would make air conduct electricity better or if uranium could do it by itself. The two discovered that pitchblende had so much radioactive substance that it was hard to explained the uranium content. While observing pitchblende (uranium ore), she discovered radium and polonium. She tribute the word "Polonium" to her home....Poland. 
   

Polonium was 150 times more active than uranium. Radium was 900 times more radioactive than uranium.Radium and polonium were new elements and radioactivity was atomic in character. She would isolate radium in it's natural state. In April 1898, all of her hard work revealed that thorium compounds (like uranium) was related to Becquerel rays. Scientists were now happy by the potential of radium as a cancer cure. 
 
Accomplishments
1903 won the Nobel prize for physics but they had to share the award with Antoine Bacquerel (had discovered natural radioactivity.) It was for discovery radium and polonium.
1911 won the Nobel prize for chemistry for isolating radium and studying the substance properties.
In 1914 she opened Radium Institute in Paris and was the first lady director. 
In 1921 she met the U.S. President, Warren Harding, giving her a collection taken up among American women.
On July 4, 1934, Marie Curie died at 67 from leukemia; brought on by high levels of radiation during her experiments. The institute changed it's name to Curie Institute.
Only women in the picture.
 
Sources
creative process
marie curie
marie sclodowska curie
biography
science of radioactivity