A great scientist and a special anniversary

15 February 2016

The 7th of November marks the anniversary of Maria Skłodowska-Curie’s birthday and is the International Day of Medical Physics established to celebrate it.The five reasons to admire our Nobel Prize winner are reminded by Monika Aksamit-Koperska and Dariusz Aksamit, laureates of the FameLab competition. 

The sole reason that we could possibly need is the fact that Maria Skłodowska-Curie is the only woman to achieve two Nobel Prizes (also the first of them as the first woman in history).
There were three other male double Nobel winners, but only she received the prize in two different areas of science – physics and chemistry. The fact that she was the first female professor at the Sorbonne seems small in comparison.
There was also no other family in history to achieve so many prizes – she was followed as a Nobel Prize winner by her husband Pierre (physics), daughter Irène with her husband Frédéric (chemistry), and her second daughter’s husband Henry (Nobel Peace Prize).
Some families had two Nobel Prize winners – but five?!

Authors: Dariusz Aksamit, Monika Aksamit-Koperska

Source: A great scientist and a special anniversary. People to remember this weekend, Gazeta Wyborcza, Science, 7 November 2015

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