Marie Curie

Essay by mattskiba February 2007

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Marie Curie, her birth name was Maria Sklodowski, was born in Warsaw, Poland in November the 7th, 1867, her original name was Maria Sklodowski. There were five children in Marie's family and she was the youngest. Her parents were teachers so she started learning at an early age. Marie had a rough childhood because in 1867 Poland was controlled by Russia.

Marie's mother died when she was still young and her father lost his job as a teacher since he was caught teaching Polish, which was illegal because of the new Russian ruling. Marie and her sister then had to get jobs because of this to support the family. Then after trying many jobs Marie chose to do tutor a family just outside Warsaw.

In 1891 Bronya, Marie's sister, married a medical student and set up a practice in Paris. Bronya then asked if Marie would like to stay with them and they also offered her the chance to study at the Sorbonne, a Parisian university.

At the Sorbonne Marie studied physics and mathematics. She did very well in both of these subjects so it didn't take long for her to receive her masters' degree.

Marie remained in Paris to study magnetism. However to conduct the experiments she sought to do she had to have a larger lab. She was then introduced to another scientist, in 1894, Pierre Curie, that had extra room for Marie. Marie fell in love after a year with Pierre and married him.

Marie succeeded her husband as Head of the Physics Laboratory at Sorbonne and earned her Doctor of Science degree in 1903. Later in 1906 her husband died and she took his place as the Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences, this was the first time a women had this...