By ABIGAIL KONIG
Staff Writer
Since March is Women’s History Month, it’s important to recognize and honor women who have helped pave the way for our rights. One woman, in particular, changed the field of science and made discoveries that are crucial in lab testing all over the world. Marie Curie was born in Warsaw in 1867 and dedicated her life to research that would better life around her. Curie’s early research tests were often performed under difficult conditions but still throughout her research, she conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. Her achievements include the development of the theory of radioactivity, and the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and in Warsaw, which remain major centers of medical research today. During World War I, she developed mobile radiography units to provide X-ray services to field hospitals. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields. She was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes as well as the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 was entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris. We have Marie Curie to greatly thank for her work that has changed the field of science for the better.
