marie curie
...fessor. Before Marie turned 11, her oldest sister had died of typhus and her mother had died of tuberculosis. Despite these losses, Manya graduated from high school at 15 with the highest honors. After graduating, she suffered from a nervous illness, which left her feeling too tired to do anything. These days doctors would call it depression . Her parents influenced her very much. It was because of them that she wanted to attend college. In Warsaw women were not allowed to attend college, so her and her sister Bronia, made a pact, Marie would work as a governess to help pay for Bronia’s medical studies in Paris. As soon as Bronia was trained and began to earn money, she would pay for Marie to go to college. Her sister Bronia kept her end of the bargain. In 1891 she registered at the famous Sorbonne University. (nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/1911/) She was an excellent student. Her fine work in physics won her a scholarship. A group of industrialists, the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry, paid her to investigate the properties of different steels. In college she met a man named Pierre Curie. They fell in love and got married in 1894. . Marie and Pierre Curie had two daughters. Irene was born in 1897 and Eve was born in 1904. Pierre died tragically in 1906. He was hit by a car and killed instantly. His health was already poor due to his work with radioactivity. This only made her a stronger person. 1903, the Curies won the Nobel Prize for their work along with French physicist, Antoine Henri Bacquerel, who had first discovered natural radioactivity. (almaz.com/nobel/physics/1903c.html) ...