Madame Curie Discoverer of Radium Originally named Marja Sklodowska, Marie Curie was born in Warsaw on Nov. 7, 1867. Her father taught high school physics. In 1891 she went to Paris (where she changed her name to Marie) and enrolled in the Sorbonne. Two years later she passed the examination for her degree in physics, ranking in first place. She met Pierre Curie in 1894, and they married in 1895. Marie Curie was interested in the recent discoveries of radiation. …showed first 75 words of 415 total…

…showed last 75 words of 415 total…on radium and radium compounds. She became head of the Paris Institute of Radium in 1914 and helped found the Curie Institute. Marie Curie's final illness was diagnosed as pernicious anemia, caused by overexposure to radiation. She died in Haute Savoie on July 4, 1934. The Curies had two daughters, one of whom was also a Nobel Prize winner. Irene Joliot-Curie and her husband, Frederic received the 1935 Nobel Prize in chemistry for the synthesis of new radioactive elements.