The International Year of Chemistry 2011 celebration this year recognizes the centennial of Marie Curie’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 for the discovery of Radium and Polonium.

Various publications of Marie Curie are on display in the current exhibit, Chemistry: From Alchemy to Radioactivity (click the link for more information and to download an exhibit brochure).

Marie coined the term “radioactivity” and explained it as an atomic property. In addition to discovering radioactive elements, she applied radioactive isotopes to the treatment of cancer.

Born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, Marie Curie (1867-1934) was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and she is the only woman to win the award in two different fields. Her husband Pierre Curie shared her Nobel Prize in Physics.

Their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, and son-in-law, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, also shared a Nobel prize.

• View additional Curie portraits.
• Exhibit information: Chemistry: From Alchemy to Radioactivity .
  • Brochure.
  • Scavenger hunt.
• New Marie Curie biography by Marilyn Ogilvie.