WORLD OF SCIENCE
In the family
DR. T. V. PADMA
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Marie Curie and her daughter Irene have made their mark as scientists.
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Marie Curie is a well-known female scientist: an individual who won Nobel Prizes in two fields: one for physics (shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Bequerel in 1903) and one for chemistry (awarded to her alone, in 1911). She was born in occupied Poland, and she struggled to gain higher education. In Pierre Curie, she found a work partner who treated her as an equal — a man who refused to accept the Nobel prize unless Marie shared it with him. After Marie was widowed, she had to battle hard and conquer her depression. She threw herself into her work and became the first woman ever to teach at the prestigious Sorbonne University in France. She went on to win her second Nobel Prize. Years later, in 1935, her daughter Irene became the second woman to win a Nobel Prize.
Unlike her mother
Irene, unlike her mother, was a political and social activist. She and her husband were forced to flee France when it was occupied by the Nazis during World War II. They joined the resistance. Irene and her husband were separated for a few years, when she fled to Switzerland for the safety of her children and he remained in France, working under a false name. Irene Joliot-Curie was also dedicated to the intellectual advancement of women. She served as a member of the Comite National de l'Union des Femmes Francais, the World Peace Council, several foreign academies and numerous scientific societies. She received many honorary degrees, and was an officer of the Legion of Honor. She was so interested in the inauguration of the large centre for nuclear physics at Orsay that she personally assisted with the plans for its construction.
Irene and her husband were reunited after the war, but both succumbed to radiation sickness.
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