Personal Statement

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." A quote once said by Albert Einstein, the famous scientist himself. These are the words I live by and what has helped me throughout the years become who I am today. Hello! or as they say in Poland, “Cześć!” My name is Marie Curie. I am a physicist and chemist, most famous for discovering the chemical elements of radium and polonium, and opening a new field for women in science. I was married to Pierre Curie, another famous scientist, who assisted me in my discoveries. I was a woman in a time when women were not scientists, and this is the story of my success as one.

I fought for freedom by discovering the chemical element, radium. I was also the first female professor in

Zofia, Józef, Bronislava, and Helena were my siblings. Ever since I was a little child, I had fallen in love with science, and my parents knew it too. Both of my parents had a career of teaching in science and math at some point in their lives, so I had quite the influence from them to teach when I entered my career. When I was eight years old, two of my sisters, Bronislava and Zofia, came down with Typhus Fever. Typhus is “an infectious disease, characterized by purple rashes, headaches, and usually delirium.” Unfortunately, only Bronislava was able to recover, and that same year, 1876, Zofia died. However, that was not the only traumatic death of the family. Back track two years, in 1874, my mother came down with tuberculosis, another infectious disease. She even refrained from kissing and hugging my siblings and I, but with no luck, died in 1878, at age 42. I remember I had said, “This catastrophe was the first great sorrow of my life and threw me into a profound depression.” (M. Curie). In addition, I often occupied myself by tutoring and working as a governess for about five years as an adolescent. Now that you know my background, it is time to jump into how I became famous and why I am here talking to you

*One evening, on April 19, 1906, hurrying to cross the street, he was run over by a horse-drawn wagon and was killed instantly. I was at home at the time, teaching my children, Irene and Eve, which I often did. Hearing news of my husband (their father) dying was quite devastating. Pierre was buried in Sceaux, where my children and I moved later in June of 1906. Years before, I studied physics and chemistry at Sorbonne University when I moved to Paris with my sister, Bronislava, in 1989, so I was quite familiar with the area. Being a student at Sorbonne University, I received my master’s degree in physics in 1893, graduating at the top of my class. A year later, I also received a second master’s degree in mathematics, graduating second in my class. Pierre was a professor at Sorbonne University, so I took up his position, thus becoming the first woman to be a professor in the country of