Maria Curie. Maria Sklodowska-Curie: Biography. Marie Curie University in Lublin

As early as the beginning of the 20th century, before the First World War, when time was flowing slowly and slowly, the ladies wore corsets, and women who had already married, had to observe decency (keep housekeeping and stay at home), Curie Maria was awarded two Nobel Prizes: 1908 - in physics, in 1911 - in chemistry. She did a lot of things first, but, perhaps most importantly, is that Mary made a real revolution in the public consciousness. Women after her boldly went into science, without fear from the scientific community, consisting at that time of men, ridicule in their direction. Marie Curie was an amazing person. The biography presented below will convince you of this.

Origin

In neeology the name of this woman was Sklodowska. Her father, Vladislav Sklodovsky, graduated in his time St. Petersburg University. Then he returned to Warsaw in order to teach mathematics and physics in the gymnasium. His wife, Bronislava, kept a boarding house, in which girls-schoolboys were trained. She helped in all her husband, was a passionate lover of reading. In total, the family had five children. Maria Sklodowska-Curie (Manya, as her name was in her childhood) is the youngest.

Warsaw childhood

All her childhood passed under a mother's cough. Bronislava suffered from tuberculosis. She died when Mary was only 11 years old. Curiosity and learning abilities were different for all the children of Sklodowski, and Maniu was simply impossible to tear from the book. Father encouraged as much as he could a passion for learning in his children. The only thing that upset the family is the need to study in Russian. In the photo above - the house in which Maria was born and spent her childhood. Now here is a museum.

The situation in Poland

Poland at that time was part of the Russian Empire. Therefore, all the gymnasiums were controlled by Russian officials, who watched all the subjects in the language of this empire. Children were even supposed to read Catholic prayers in Russian, and not in their native language, where they prayed and talked at home. Vladislav because of this often upset. After all, sometimes a pupil, capable of mathematics, who solved different tasks in Polish differently, suddenly "stupid" when it was required to switch to Russian, which he did not possess well. Since childhood, seeing all these humiliations, Maria all her future life, however, like the rest of the inhabitants of the state torn at that time in part, was a fierce patriot, and also a conscientious member of the Polish Polish community.

Conspiracy of sisters

The girl was not easy to grow up without a mother. Dad, always busy at work, teaching pedagogues in the gymnasium ... Manya was the friend of Bronya, her sister. They agreed with the teenagers that they will necessarily learn further, after the end of the gymnasium. In Warsaw, higher education was not possible at that time for women, so they dreamed of the Sorbonne. The conspiracy was as follows: Armor first will start his studies, since she is older. And Manya will earn money for her education. When she learns to be a doctor, Manya will start learning right away, and her sister will help her as much as she can. However, it turned out that the dream of Paris had to be postponed for almost 5 years.

Work as a governess

Manya was appointed governess to the estate of Pike, to the children of a rich local landowner. The hosts did not appreciate the bright mind of this girl. At every step they let her know that she was only a poor servant. In Shchuky, the girl lived uneasy, but she suffered for Broni. Both sisters graduated from gymnasium with a gold medal. Brother Jozef (also, incidentally, a gold medalist) went to Warsaw, enrolling in the medical faculty. Elia also received a medal, but her claims were more modest. She decided to stay with her father, keep housekeeping. The fourth sister in the family died as a child when her mother was still alive. In general, Vladislav could rightfully be proud of his remaining children.

First lover

The five had Maria's employers. She taught younger, but Kazimierz, the eldest son, often went on vacation. He drew attention to such an unusual governess. She was very independent. In addition, what was very unusual for a girl of that time, she ran on skates, perfectly managed with oars, skillfully ruled by the crew and rode horseback. And, as she later confessed to Kazimierz, she was very fond of composing poetry, as well as reading books on mathematics that seemed to her poetry.

Between the young people after a while there was a platonic feeling. Manyu despised the fact that the arrogant parents of his lover would never allow him to link his fate with the governess. Kazimierz came for summer vacations and holidays, and the rest of the time she waited for the meeting. But now it's time to leave and go to Paris. Manya left the Pike with a heavy heart - remained in the past Kazimierz and the first years of love.

Then, when Pierre Curie appears in the life of 27-year-old Maria , she will immediately understand that he will become her faithful husband. Everything will be different in the case with him - without stormy dreams and flashes of feelings. Or maybe Maria will just get older?

The device in Paris

The girl arrived in 1891 in France. Armor and her husband, Kazimierz Dlussky, also working as a doctor, began to take care of her. However, the determined Maria (in Paris she began to call herself Marie) opposed this. She independently rented a room, and also enrolled in the Sorbonne, the natural faculty. Marie in Paris settled in the Latin Quarter. Libraries, laboratories and the university were in the neighborhood with him. Dlussky helped his sister's sister to take a modest belongings on a hand cart. Marie resolutely refused to settle with any girl in order to pay for a room less - she wanted to stay up late and in silence. Its budget was in 1892 40 rubles, or 100 francs a month, that is, 3 francs a day. And it was necessary to pay for the room, clothes, food, books, notebooks and training at the university ... The girl cut herself in food. And since she was very hard at work, she soon fainted right in class. A classmate ran to ask for help to the Dlusskys. And they again took Marie to her so that she could pay less for housing and eat well.

Acquaintance with Pierre

Once a classmate of Marie invited her to visit a famous physicist from Poland. Then the girl first saw the person with whom she was destined to subsequently win world fame. At that time, the girl was 27, and Pierre - 35 years. When Marie entered the drawing-room, he stood in the aperture of the balcony. The girl tried to examine it, and the sun blinded her. So Maria Sklodowska and Pierre Curie met.

Pierre was devoted to science with all his heart. Parents have tried several times to introduce him to the girl, but always in vain - they all seemed to him uninteresting, stupid and petty. And that evening, after talking with Marie, he realized that he had found an equal interlocutor. At that time, the girl carried out the work ordered by the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry, on the magnetic properties of different steel grades. Marie had just started research in Lipmann's laboratory. And behind the shoulders of the physicist and chemist who worked in the School of Pierre, there was already a study on magnetism and even the "Curie law" that he had discovered. Young people had something to talk about. Pierre was so carried away by Marie that early in the morning he went off to the fields to pick up his daisies for his beloved.

Wedding

Pierre and Marie were married on July 14, 1895, and went on a honeymoon to the Île-de-France. Here they read, went for a drive on bicycles, discussed scientific topics. Pierre, even to please his young wife, began to learn Polish ...

Fateful acquaintance

By the time of Iren's birth, their first daughter, Marie's husband had already defended his doctoral dissertation, and his wife graduated from the Sorbonne University, the first in its release . At the end of 1897, a study on magnetism was completed, and Curie Maria began to search for a topic for the thesis. At this time, the couple met Henri Becquerel, a physicist. He discovered a year ago that uranium compounds emit radiation that penetrates deeply. It was, in contrast to the X-ray, an internal property of uranium. Curie Maria, fascinated by a mysterious phenomenon, decided to study it. Pierre postponed his work in order to help his wife.

The first discoveries and the award of the Nobel Prize

Pierre and Marie Curie in 1898 opened 2 new elements. The first of them they called polonium (in honor of the birthplace of Marie, Poland), and the second - radium. Since they did not distinguish either element, they could not provide proof of their existence to chemists. And the next 4 years the spouses extracted radium and polonium from uranium ore. Pierre and Marie Curie worked from morning till night in a crevice shed, exposed to radiation. The couple got burned before they realized the danger of research. However, they decided to continue them! The spouses in September 1902 received 1/10 grams of radium chloride. But they could not single out the polonium - as it turned out, it was the product of the decay of radium. Heat and bluish glow emitted radium salt. The attention of the whole world was attracted by this fantastic substance. In December 1903, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to the couple in co-authorship with Becquerel. Curie Marie was the first woman to receive it!

Loss of the husband

The second daughter, Eve, was born to them in December 1904. By that time, the financial situation of the family had improved considerably. Pierre became professor of physics at the Sorbonne, and his wife worked with her husband as head of the laboratory. A terrible event occurred in April 1906. Pierre knocked the crew to death. Maria Sklodowska-Curie, having lost her husband, colleague and best friend, fell into depression for several months.

Second Nobel Prize

However, life continued. The woman concentrated all efforts on the isolation of metallic radium in pure form, and not its compounds. And she received this substance in 1910 (in collaboration with A. Deborin). Maria Curie discovered it and proved that radium is a chemical element. She was even wanted to become a member of the French Academy of Sciences for this, in a wave of great success, however, debates turned around, baiting began in the press, and in the end male chauvinism won . In 1911, Marie was awarded the 2nd Nobel Prize, in chemistry. She became the first laureate to be awarded twice.

Work at the Radium Institute

For studies of radioactivity, the Radium Institute was established shortly before the First World War began. Curie worked here in the field of fundamental studies of radioactivity and its medical application. In the war years she taught military medicine physicians of radiology, for example, to detect in the body of a wounded shrapnel with the help of X-rays, supplied portable X-ray machines to the forefront. Irene, her daughter, was among the doctors she taught.

last years of life

Even in advanced years, Maria Curie continued her work. A brief biography of these years is marked by the following: she worked with doctors, students, wrote scientific works, and also released her husband's biography. Marie went to Poland, which finally gained independence. She also visited the United States, where she was greeted with triumph and where she was presented with 1 gram of radium for the continuation of the experiments (the cost of which, incidentally, is equivalent to the cost of more than 200 kg of gold). However, interaction with radioactive substances was felt. Her health worsened, and on July 4, 1934, Curie Maria died of leukemia. This happened in the French Alps, in a small hospital in Sansellemoz.

Marie Curie University in Lublin

In honor of the Curie couples, the chemical element of curium was named (No. 96). And the name of the great woman Mary was immortalized in the name of the university in Lublin (Poland). It is one of the largest higher educational establishments in Poland, belonging to the state. The University of Mary Curie-Sklodowska was founded in 1944, before it is a monument, presented in the photo above. The first rector and organizer of this educational institution was the senior lecturer Heinrich Raabe. Today it includes the following 10 faculties:

- Chemistry.

- Biology and biotechnology.

- Arts.

- Humanities.

- Philosophy and sociology.

- Pedagogy and psychology.

- Earth sciences and spatial planning.

- Mathematics, physics and computer science.

- Rights and governance.

- Political science.

- Pedagogy and psychology.

The University of Mary Curie has chosen more than 23.5 thousand students for instruction, of which about 500 are foreigners.