Curie Wins Second Nobel: A Legacy of Discovery
Marie Curie received the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on November 7 for her discovery of radium and polonium, making her the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific disciplines. She had shared the 1903 Physics Prize with her husband Pierre and Henri Becquerel for their work on radioactivity. The 1911 award came during a personal crisis: Pierre had been killed by a horse-drawn cart in 1906, and Curie was embroiled in a tabloid scandal over an affair with physicist Paul Langevin. The Nobel Committee briefly considered rescinding the invitation. Curie went to Stockholm anyway. She remains the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. Her notebooks from the 1890s are still so radioactive they must be stored in lead-lined boxes and handled with protective gear.
November 7, 1911
115 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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