Marie Curie (1867-1934) was a physicist and chemist who, along with her husband Pierre, discovered the elements polonium and radium. Marie coined the word radioactive, and continued to research X-rays and radium throughout her career. (In fact, her belongings are still radioactive today.) After Pierre's death in 1906, Marie became the first woman professor at the Sorbonne. She was also the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in science (and the first person to win one twice): she won the Nobel in Physics in 1903 and then in Chemistry in 1911. While she shared the 1903 prize with her husband and Henri Becquerel, she was the sole winner in 1911.
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