Marie Curie

Born

1867 · Warsaw, Poland (then under Russian rule)

Roots

Polish; emigrated to France at 24

Family

Working class

Teacher parents who lost property through involvement in Polish national movements; her mother died when she was ten.

Education

Clandestine Flying University in Warsaw → Sorbonne (physics, mathematics)

Started with

A teacher's household

Her father taught physics and kept laboratory instruments at home; years of governess wages later paid for Paris.

Affiliations & societies

Flying UniversityDocumented

Studied at the clandestine Polish university that operated illegally under Russian rule.

Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.

The pathway

1. 1885 · age 18
   Works as a governess

   Funds her sister's medical studies in Paris; studies on her own and at the underground Flying University.

2. 1891 · age 24
   The Sorbonne

   Lives in a garret on bread and tea; graduates first in her class in physics.

3. 1898 · age 31
   Discovers polonium and radium

   With Pierre Curie, processing tons of pitchblende in a leaking shed.

4. 1903 · age 36
   Nobel Prize in Physics

   The first woman laureate — added to the nomination after Pierre insisted.

5. 1906 · age 39
   First woman professor at the Sorbonne

   Takes over Pierre's chair after his death in a street accident.

6. 1911 · age 44
   Second Nobel, in Chemistry

   The same year, the French Academy of Sciences rejects her membership by two votes.

7. 1934 · age 66
   Dies of aplastic anemia

   Attributed to decades of radiation exposure; her notebooks remain radioactive today.