Marie Curie, born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland, in 1867, was the youngest of five children. After her mother’s death in 1877, she worked as a tutor to support her family while her sister Bronya studied medicine in Paris. When Bronya married, she invited Marie to join her in Paris, where Marie adopted her new name and studied at the Sorbonne. She excelled, earning master's degrees in Physics and Mathematics and researching magnetism, leading to her meeting Pierre Curie, whom she later married.
Together, they conducted pioneering research on radioactivity, isolating radium, which earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. After Pierre's untimely death in 1906, Marie succeeded him at the Sorbonne. In 1911, she won her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry. During World War I, she invented the first mobile X-ray machine for medical use on the front lines. Marie Curie passed away in July 1934 due to radiation poisoning, leaving behind a significant legacy as the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and an enduring source of inspiration worldwide.