Marie Curie (Maria Skłodowska-Curie)

Marie Curie, born in Poland in 1867, was a pioneering scientist known for her groundbreaking work on radioactivity, a term she coined. She conducted pioneering research on the properties of radioactive elements like polonium and radium, which led to important advancements in medicine and science. Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and remains the only person to have received Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields—Physics and Chemistry. Her work laid the foundation for cancer treatments and greatly expanded understanding of atomic science, transforming both research and medical practice.