A pioneer in the field of radioactivity, she was the first person to receive two Nobel prizes in different specialties - Physics and Chemistry - and the first woman to hold the position of professor at the University of Paris. In 1995 she was buried with honors in the Pantheon of Paris on her own merits.
She studied clandestinely at the "floating university" of Warsaw and began her scientific training in Warsaw. In 1891, at the age of 24, she followed her older sister Bronis-awa Duuska to Paris, where she completed her studies and carried out her most outstanding scientific work. She shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie and physicist Henri Becquerel. Years later, she won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Although she received French citizenship and supported her new homeland, she never lost her Polish identity: she taught her daughters her mother tongue and took them on visits to Poland. She named the first chemical element she discovered, Polonium, after her home country.
The ‘Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ awarded Marie Curie the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, along with her husband and Henri Becquerel, "in recognition of the extraordinary services provided in her joint research on radiation phenomena discovered by Henri Becquerel". She was the first woman to receive such an award. At first, the selection committee intended to honor only Pierre and Henri, denying Marie recognition for being a woman. One of the members of the Academy, the mathematician Magnus Gota Mittag-Leffler, alerted Pierre of the situation and Pierre said he would reject the Nobel Prize if Marie's work was not also recognized. In response to the complaint, she was included in the nomination.
Her achievements include early studies on the phenomenon of radioactivity (a term she herself coined), 8,910 techniques for the isolation of radioactive isotopes and the discovery of two elements - Polonium and Radio. Under her direction, the first studies were carried out into the treatment of neoplasms with radioactive isotopes. She founded the Curie Institute in Paris and Warsaw, which remains among the main medical research centers today. During World War I she created the first radiological centers for military use. She died in 1934 at the age of 66, at the Sancellemoz Sanatorium in Passy, from aplastic anemia caused by radiation exposure from radio test tubes she kept in her pockets at work and the construction of the mobile X-ray units of World War I.
Marie Curie's life was not easy. She became a widow in 1906, following the death of Pierre, and fell into a deep depression. In the spring of 1910 – the same year she published her Treatise on Radioactivity – there was a change in Marie's life. Shortly after, she started a relationship with Paul Langevin, a highly talented scientist who had been one of Pierre's most advanced disciples. For years, the two, Marie and Paul, cultivated a friendship that eventually became something more intimate. The relationship however ran into a serious obstacle: Langevin was married. When the news became public, the tabloid press attacked Marie Curie harshly as a "homewrecker," a foreigner who was required to return to Poland. The accusations were also tinged with voracious anti-Semitism. In 1911, when she was awarded her second Nobel prize, several members of the Swedish academy advised her not to go, but she was supported by, among others, Albert Einstein, and decided to attend and receive the award.
After the fierce attacks from the press and public opinion, the relationship between Curie and Langevin returned to the realm of friendship and professionalism. Many years later both families would be in joined as Paul's grandson, Michel, would marry Marie's granddaughter, nuclear physicist Héléne Langevin-Joliot.
Despite having 2 Nobel prizes, in Physics and Chemistry, it was not until 1995, under the government of Mitterrand that they moved Marie's body to the Pantheon of Paris, officially recognizing her great work as a scientist.
Sources:
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie
* Revista Chilena de Radiología. Vol. 12 Nº 3 año 2006; 139-145.
* HISTORIA DE LA RADIOLOGIA
* MARIE CURIE, UNA GRAN CIENTIFICA, UNA GRAN MUJER
https://mujeresconciencia.com/2018/06/21/el-trastorno-depresivo-de-marie-curie/