Nobel Prizes and Laureates

Pierre Curie - Facts

Pierre Curie

Born: 15 May 1859, Paris, France

Died: 19 April 1906, Paris, France

Affiliation at the time of the award: École municipale de physique et de chimie industrielles (Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry), Paris, France

Prize motivation: "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel"

Field: Nuclear physics

Discovered Polonium and Radium

The 1897 discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel inspired Marie and Pierre Curie to investigate further this phenomenon. They examined several substances and minerals for radioactivity. They found that the mineral pitchblende was more active than uranium and concluded that it must contain other radioactive substances. They managed to extract two previously unknown elements: polonium and radium, both of them more radioactive than uranium.

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