Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland. Her parents were teachers. When she was a teen, she made a pact with her sister. Marie would help pay for her sister's medical studies in Paris. Then her sister would help pay for Marie's studies. Later, Marie moved to Paris, France. She went there to study at a university.

In 1896, a man named Henri Becquerel found that uranium gives off rays. Marie studied these rays. She came up with a new word for them. The word was radioactivity. In 1898, she and her husband, Pierre Curie, told the world about two new elements. They announced polonium in July. They announced radium in December of that year.

Marie named polonium after Poland. That is the country where she was born. Radium is named for the Latin word for ray. Radium gives off light. It gives off heat too. Much of the Curies' work on radium took place in a shed. In 1903, Marie became the first woman in France to get a doctoral degree.

That same year, 1903, she shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre and with Henri Becquerel. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. In 1906, she became a professor at the Sorbonne. She was the first woman to hold that post. Her job was Professor of General Physics.

In 1911, Marie won a second Nobel Prize. This time it was in chemistry. It was for her work on radium and polonium. She was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes. In 1921, the women of America gave her one gram of radium. U.S. President Harding presented it to her.

In World War I, Marie organized mobile X-ray teams. She learned to drive a car. Then she could run the X-ray vehicles herself. People nicknamed the vehicles petites Curies. That is French for little Curies. X-rays helped doctors find bullets and broken bones in wounded soldiers. Then they could operate with more care.

Words to know

• radioactivity: rays from atoms
• elements: basic materials
• Sorbonne: a Paris university
• pact: a deal
• mobile: able to move

The short version

Marie Curie was a scientist born in Warsaw, Poland. With her husband, Pierre, she found two new elements, polonium and radium, and she invented the word radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win two.

Quick facts

• Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland.
• She and Pierre Curie announced polonium in July 1898 and radium in December 1898.
• She won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911.
• She invented the word radioactivity.
• In World War I she organized mobile X-ray teams, nicknamed petites Curies.