Marie Curie’s relentless resolve and insatiable curiosity made her an icon in the world of modern science. Persisting tirelessly despite a career of physically demanding and ultimately fatal work, she discovered polonium and radium, championed the use of radiation in medicine and fundamentally changed our understanding of radioactivity.

Following work on X-rays during World War I, she studied radioactive substances and their medical applications.

Curie believed scientific research was a public good and championed its utility. She and her husband had discovered that radium destroyed diseased cells, faster than healthy cells, and thus that radiation could be used to treat tumors.