Pierre Curie was born in
Paris, where his father was a general medical practitioner, on
May 15, 1859. He received his early education at home before
entering the Faculty of Sciences at the Sorbonne. He gained his
Licenciateship in Physics in 1878 and continued as a demonstrator
in the physics laboratory until 1882 when he was placed in charge
of all practical work in the Physics and Industrial Chemistry
Schools. In 1895 he obtained his Doctor of Science degree and was
appointed Professor of Physics. He was promoted to Professor in
the Faculty of Sciences in 1900, and in 1904 he became Titular
Professor.
In his early studies on crystallography, together with his
brother Jacques, Curie discovered piezoelectric effects. Later,
he advanced theories of symmetry with regard to certain physical
phenomena and turned his attention to magnetism. He showed that
the magnetic properties of a given substance change at a certain
temperature - this temperature is now known as the Curie point.
To assist in his experiments he constructed several delicate
pieces of apparatus - balances, electrometers, piezoelectric
crystals, etc.
Curie's studies of radioactive substances were made together with
his wife, whom he married in 1895. They were achieved under
conditions of much hardship - barely adequate laboratory
facilities and under the stress of having to do much teaching in
order to earn their livelihood. They announced the discovery of
radium and polonium by fractionation of pitchblende in 1898 and
later they did much to elucidate the properties of radium and its
transformation products. Their work in this era formed the basis
for much of the subsequent research in nuclear physics and
chemistry. Together they were awarded half of the Nobel Prize for
Physics in 1903 on account of their study into the spontaneous
radiation discovered by Becquerel, who was awarded the other half
of the Prize.
Pierre Curie's work is recorded in numerous publications in the
Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, the Journal de
Physique and the Annales de Physique et Chimie.
Curie was awarded the Davy Medal of the Royal Society of London
in 1903 (jointly with his wife) and in 1905 he was elected to the
Academy of Sciences.
His wife was formerly Marie Sklodowska, daughter of a
secondary-school teacher at Warsaw, Poland. One daughter, Irene,
married Frederic Joliot and they were joint recipients of the
Nobel Prize for
Chemistry in 1935. The younger daughter, Eve, married the
American diplomat H. R. Labouisse. They have both taken lively
interest in social problems, and as Director of the United
Nations' Children's Fund he received on its behalf the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in
1965. She is the author of a famous biography of her mother,
Madame Curie (Gallimard, Paris, 1938), translated into several
languages.
Pierre was killed in a street accident in Paris on April 19, 1906.
From Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901-1921, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1967
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1903
Pierre Curie
