Marie Curie is the Only Person to Win Nobel Prizes in Two Scientific Fields
Polish-born naturalized Frenchwoman Marie Salomea Skodowska-Curie was a physicist and chemist who made significant contributions to the field of radioactivity. She was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize, the first and only female recipient of the award twice, and the only recipient of the prize in two different scientific disciplines. Her first Nobel Prize was shared with her husband, Pierre Curie, making them the first married couple in history to share the honor and beginning the Curie family heritage of five Nobel Prizes. She was the first female professor at the University of Paris when she was appointed there in 1906.
Andre Geim's accomplishment of winning both a Nobel Prize and an Ig Nobel Prize is already amazing, but Marie Curie is still the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different scientific categories. Her first honor came in 1903 when she and her husband shared the physics Nobel Prize for their contributions to the study of radiation. She is perhaps best recognized for this, which is why a curie is a unit used to measure radiation intensity. But it wasn't the only thing she concentrated on during her time as a scientist. For discovering the elements polonium and radium, Curie received her second Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1911.
- Born: 7 November 1867
- Died: 4 July 1934
