Marie Curie Wins Second Nobel Prize
Marie Curie won her second Nobel Prize in Chemistry, becoming the first person to win in two different sciences
December 10, 1911
A Second Nobel, a First for Anyone
In 1911, Marie Curie became the first person — and still the only person — to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. Her second Nobel, this time in Chemistry, recognized her discovery of radium and polonium, and her isolation of pure radium as an element. She received this honor despite the French Academy of Sciences refusing to admit her as a member just weeks earlier, citing her gender. The Nobel Committee's recognition made her rejection by the Academy all the more glaring to the world.
Science Under Personal Scrutiny
The year 1911 was personally difficult for Curie. Her husband Pierre had died in a street accident in 1906, and she had continued their work alone. That same year she was involved in a public scandal, as tabloids attacked her relationship with physicist Paul Langevin. Some in France tried to prevent her from accepting the second Nobel on these grounds. Curie traveled to Stockholm and gave her acceptance lecture anyway, refusing to let personal attacks derail her scientific achievements.
Her Enduring Influence
Curie's work on radioactivity transformed medicine and physics. Radium was used in cancer treatment for decades. Her research helped establish the fields of nuclear physics and nuclear medicine. She founded the Curie Institute in Paris, which remains a major cancer research center today. She died in 1934 from aplastic anemia, likely caused by decades of radiation exposure before its dangers were understood. Her life is a story of extraordinary determination, scientific brilliance, and perseverance against prejudice. Use our age calculator to explore her lifetime.