18981898 · Paris

Marie and Pierre Curie discover radium

Pierre and Marie Curie with their apparatus for measuring radioactivity in their Paris laboratory — Archival image: Unknown photographer. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Working in a draughty shed at a Paris school of physics and chemistry, Marie and Pierre Curie identified two new radioactive elements in 1898, polonium and radium. Their research opened the way to atomic physics and to radiation treatment for cancer. Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, in 1903, and the first person to win two, adding chemistry in 1911.

Science & Medicine
Paris, France

Sites

Site 1: Musée Curie, Radium InstituteMarie Curie's office and laboratory in the institute built for her.Map ↗
Site 2: PanthéonThe Curies' tomb; she was the first woman laid there for her own achievements.Map ↗