The legacy of Marie Curie: perpetuating the spirit of a pioneer

A world-renowned scientist and  two-time Nobel Prize winner, Marie Curie devoted her life to promoting science, considering it “the basis of all progress that alleviates human life and reduces suffering”. Following in Pierre Curie's footsteps, grasping the therapeutic potential of their discoveries, she understood early on the importance of getting doctors, scientists and intellectuals from all over the world to work together. In 1909, this interdisciplinary approach became the founding principle of the institute.

An exceptional woman

Maria Sklodowska was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, part of Poland at the time ruled by the Russian Empire. She grew up in a family of teachers, for whom education was essential. Although an excellent pupil, she was unable to enter university, as girls were forbidden. So she went to Paris to study physics, graduating with first-class honors in physics in 1893, then with “assez bien” (or 3rd class) in mathematics in 1894. 
Throughout her life, she accumulated top honors: first in the agrégation in mathematics for girls in 1896, first woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1903, first woman to be appointed professor at the Sorbonne in 1908, first (and only) woman to win a second Nobel Prize in 1911, first woman to be admitted to the French Academy of Medecine in 1922. Last but not least, the first woman to be buried in the Panthéon for her merits. Since 1995, she has been laid to rest there with her husband, Pierre Curie. 

The discovery of radioactivity 

Her meeting with Pierre Curie, already a recognized scientist at the time, overturned her plans to return to Poland with her diplomas. They married in 1895. The following year, she decided to devote her doctoral thesis to Henri Becquerel's recent discoveries: unexpectedly, this French physicist, who had stored uranium salts in a drawer, had just discovered that they emitted spontaneous rays capable of printing a photographic plate. While trying to quantify and qualify the activity of these rays, Pierre and Marie Curie identified other elements with the same properties: polonium and then radium. Marie Curie called this natural ability to emit radiation “radioactivity”. For these discoveries, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to Henri Becquerel and Pierre and Marie Curie in 1903.

The medical potential of radioactivity

Pierre Curie soon became interested in the physiological effects of radium, testing it on himself and applying it to the skin of his arm: the lesions induced by this contact took several weeks to disappear! These initial tests, followed by much more detailed studies by doctors, opened up the prospect of using radium for medical purposes, in dermatology and oncology. As early as 1901, at the Hôpital Saint-Louis in France, Doctor Henri Alexandre Danlos made his first therapeutic attempts on skin lesions. Radium needles were used to irradiate tumors. These were the first “curietherapies”.

Creation of the Institut du Radium, forerunner of Institut Curie

Pierre Curie was hit by a horse-drawn carriage and died in 1906, leaving Marie Curie alone to inherit his professorship at the University of Paris Faculty of Science and the management of his physics laboratory on rue Cuvier. 
In this capacity, in 1909 she oversaw the creation of the Institut du Radium born of a joint desire by Institut Pasteur and the University of Paris to provide France with a research center into radioactivity and its possible applications in medicine. The institute brings together two laboratories with complementary skills: the physics and chemistry laboratory, headed by Marie Curie, and the Pasteur laboratory, devoted to the study of the biological and medical effects of radiation, headed by physician Claudius Regaud. Construction of the institute, located on rue d'Ulm, was completed in 1914.

To finance its operations, the Fondation Curie was created in 1921 and recognized as a public utility. In 1922, it enabled the opening of a dispensary on rue d'Ulm, offering innovative cancer therapies, including radiotherapy. The structure and its operation paved the way for what would later become Institut Curie.

Marie Curie had an office there for the last twenty years of her life. Poorly protected during her manipulations of radioactive elements, her health declined in the 20s. She was diagnosed with pernicious anemia. She died on July 4, 1934, at the age of 66.

The legacy

“The best life is not the longest, but the richest in good deeds.”

Marie Curie's legacy is manifold, and her values continue to guide Institut Curie: to push scientific advances ever further, for the benefit of as many people as possible.

Commitment, disinterest and humanism

Albert Einstein said of her: “Madame Curie is, of all famous beings, the only one that fame has not corrupted.” Marie Curie indeed led a selfless career, to devote her life to human progress through science.
During the First World War, she saved many lives by organizing the supply of radiological equipment to all Red Cross hospitals. She fitted 18 cars with X-ray equipment, which her daughter Eve later christened “the little curies”.  These efforts to develop medical radiology made it possible to visualize fragments of shrapnel on wounded soldiers, thus facilitating the work of surgeons. Institut Curie is committed to ensuring that as many patients as possible benefit from its expertise, by establishing partnerships with other medical establishments.  

Financing thanks to donations

After the Great War, the financial situation of Institut du Radium was dire. Leveraging her notoriety and prestige as a double Nobel laureate, Marie Curie became the tireless advocate for the institute, seeking ways to finance its research and making numerous efforts to rally patrons, industrialists, and politicians to her cause. She made her first trip to the United States in 1921 to procure a precious gram of radium, purchased with donations from an American fundraising campaign. Recognized as a public utility foundation on May 27, 1921, Institut Curie continues to mobilize public generosity to invest in innovation for the fight against cancer.

A multidisciplinary approach

To transform scientific progress into medical innovation, Marie Curie and Claudius Regaud understood the importance of getting doctors and researchers to work together. The institute pursues this interdisciplinary approach to develop tomorrow's medicine.

The need for international cooperation between scientists

Of Polish origin, Marie Curie understood the importance of research without frontiers. With this in mind, she joined the International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation, created under the aegis of the League of Nations in 1922, which brought together intellectuals and scientists from all over the world. Convinced of the usefulness of this cooperation, Marie Curie even encouraged Albert Einstein to join. Institut Curie remains open to the world, and is constantly expanding its international academic links.

Spreading science

Since its creation, the institute has been training researchers and doctors, and working to ensure the preservation and transmission of knowledge. Marie Curie was convinced of the need to encourage the sharing of knowledge throughout society, rather than limiting it to an elite: “The paths leading to higher education, which are largely open to children from well-off families, remain difficult to access for children from families of limited means. Therefore, every nation loses a large part of its rarest and most precious lifeblood every year.”

Never take anything for granted

“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.” For Marie Curie, each discovery was merely a stepping stone to other potential discoveries. This perpetual quest for progress continues to drive the institute, which remains at the forefront of cancer treatment, and continues to perfect current treatments to make them more effective and less harmful.

Gender equality

Marie Curie's commitment to an ambitious career made her a role model, demonstrating to a whole generation of women that access to academia and leadership roles were possible. The institute continues this fight for gender equality in the academic world.