Curie, Marie

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Curie, Marie (1867–1934) Polish scientist who specialized in work on radiation. Marie and her husband Pierre Curie (1859–1906) (who specialized in the electrical and magnetic properties of crystals) worked together on a series of radiation experiments. In 1898, they discovered radium and polonium. In 1903, they shared the Nobel Prize in physics with A. H. Becquerel. In 1911, Marie became the first person to be awarded a second Nobel Prize (this time for chemistry), for her work on radium and its compounds. She died of leukaemia caused by laboratory radiation. Their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie (1897–1956) and her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900–58), received the 1935 Nobel Prize in chemistry for producing artificial radioactive substances.

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