🧪 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Runner-Up Prize
Marie Skłodowska-Curie (1867–1934) was a pioneering physicist and chemist whose groundbreaking research on radioactivity transformed science and medicine. Born in Poland and later working in France, she became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and remains the only person ever awarded Nobel Prizes in two different sciences, Physics and Chemistry. Alongside her husband Pierre Curie, she discovered the elements polonium and radium, and her tireless work advanced the understanding of atomic structure. Beyond the laboratory, she championed the practical use of radiation in medical treatments, even establishing mobile radiography units during World War I to aid battlefield medicine. Curie’s legacy endures as a lasting symbol of brilliance, courage, and perseverance.
Although she is most widely known as Marie Curie, she was born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw, and her Polish identity remained central to her life and work. After moving to France and marrying Pierre Curie, she became known internationally by the French form of her name, but in Poland she is still honored as Maria Skłodowska-Curie. She expressed her attachment to her homeland by naming the element polonium after Poland, supporting the development of scientific institutions there, and creating scholarship and research opportunities for Polish students and researchers.
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Prize: One ticket of choice to Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s, Tower of London, Windsor Castle, or Stonehenge.