Marie Curie

born 1867, died 1934

Perhaps the most famous of all women scientists, Marie Curie (born
Manya Sklodowska) is notable for her many firsts. In 1903, she became the 
first woman to win a Nobel Prize for Physics. The award, jointly
awarded to Curie, her husband Pierre, and Henri Becquerel, was for
the discovery of radioactivity. She was also the first woman teacher at 
the Sorbonne University in Paris (1906). In 1911, Curie won
a second Nobel Prize (this time in chemistry) for her discovery and
isolation of pure radium. She was the first person ever to
receive two Nobel Prizes. Her oldest daughter Irene Joliot-Curie also won 
a Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1935). In 1934, Curie died of leukemia,
caused by her work with radium.