“Sometimes I had to spend a whole day mixing a boiling mass with a heavy rod nearly as large as myself. I would be broken with fatigue at the day’s end,” said Marie Curie (1867-1934) of the groundbreaking work she performed in discovering new radioactive materials such as radium. In the annals of science, few names shine as brightly as that of Marie Curie—the first person to win two Nobel Prizes—one for physics and another for chemistry. However, though “Marie Curie the scientist” is rightfully celebrated, an equally remarkable story is that of Marie Curie the mother.
“It is interesting to note that Marie Curie had young children at the time that her most important scientific research was accomplished,” says Michael Hart in, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, “Her oldest daughter, Irene, also became a highly successful scientist. Irene married another talented scientist, Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie, and the two of them, working together, discovered artificial radioactivity… [and] shared a Nobel Prize in 1935. Marie Curie’s second daughter, Eve, became a noted musician and author.” In fact, Marie Curie was also a widow. Her husband, Pierre Curie—with whom she shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1903—was struck by a horse-drawn carriage in Paris in 1906 in a tragic accident.
Despite the demands of her work, Curie prioritized her daughters’ education and intellectual growth. She set up a home laboratory in their apartment, involving her daughters in her research and teaching them the values of inquiry and perseverance. The Curie household buzzed with discussions about radioactivity, chemistry, and physics—scientific thought became a way of life for the girls. When Irene faced hurdles in her studies or research, Marie was always there to provide wise counsel. In a letter to Irene, she advised, “Be less ambitious in what pertains to your own success and more ambitious in your conduct toward the future of science.”
Marie Curie died in 1934 of leukemia, likely owing to repeated exposure to radioactive materials. She famously said, “I have frequently been questioned, especially by women, of how I could reconcile family life with a scientific career. Well, it has not been easy.”
