Pierre Curie (1859 - 1906) You don't need to be a scientist to know who Maria Curie-Sklodowska was. You can also read about her on our website. As the only one woman in the world, she gained the Nobel Prize in two different fields of knowledge. She shared one of them with her no less famous husband, Pierre Curie. Her devotion to science made a huge impression on him.

Pierre Curie was born on 15 May 1859 in Paris. He's the son of Sophie-Claire and Eugene Curie, who was a doctor and the person responsible for his education.

The young Pierre showed a strong aptitude for mathematics and geometry and by the age of 18, he had completed the equivalent of a higher degree. Together with his brother, Jacques, he studied physics at Sorbonne. His researches were related with mainly piezoelectricity, magnetism, crystallography and radioactivity.

When he was 21 and worked with researching crystals, he discovered piezoelectricity (the ability to produce the electrical potential by crystals through compression and stretching). Later he became a lecturer at the University of Paris.
At the age of 36 he married with Maria, and two years later they discovered the elements radium and polonum.
They devoted their lives to understand the rules governing the world a little better. They didn't care about the fame, all they wanted was to help people and make life easier for everybody.

Pierre Curie made an experiment with radium on his own body. This experiment was later used to fight oncological diseases.
He received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903 for his achievements together with his wife and Henri Becquerel. Two years later he got the title of professor and became a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

The joy didn't last long. He died in tragic circumstances on 19 of April 1906,  hit by a horse drawn carriage in Paris. He bereaved two daughters, Eve Curie and Irène Joliot-Curie, who also, together with her husband  Frédérik Joliot-Curie, got a Nobel Prize for continuing the researches of her parents in radioactivity.
In April 1995 Pierre and Marie were enshrined in the crypt of the Panthéon in Paris.

Physics