Maria Sklodowska was born in Poland on the 7th November 1867.

As a child, Maria was a very good student. But she couldn’t go to university; girls weren’t allowed.

At 24, she left to study in Paris…

… and graduated in physics and mathematics from the Sorbonne University.

Then she met Pierre Curie, also a physicist. Wowed by this talented woman, he asked her to marry him.

Together, the couple studied radioactivity. A word they invented to describe the radiation from uranium, a mineral extracted from the ground. 

Marie discovered two highly radioactive chemical elements: radium and polonium.

For this discovery and her work on radioactivity, she received two Nobel Prizes: one in physics, the other in chemistry.