90 years (1922 - 2012) Radiological Society of North America Maria Skłodowska-Curie was active (born in Warsaw, on November 1867). She was one of the first women scientists to win worldwide fame. She had degrees (Sorbonne University, Paris) in mathematics and physics. Winner of two Nobel Prizes for Physics in 1903 (with her husband Pierre Curie) and for Chemistry in 1911 (alone), she performed pioneering studies with radium and polonium and considerably contributed to the understanding of radioactivity. She is a truly remarkable figure in the history of science and perhaps the most famous of all women scientists (the first woman in Europe to receive doctorate in sciences, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize for Physics, the first woman lecturer, the professor and head of a laboratory at the Sorbonne University of Paris, the first person ever to receive two Nobel Prizes, the first Nobel-Prize laureate mother of a Nobel-Prize laureate, the first woman who has been laid to rest under the famous dome of Pantheon in Paris). When World War I broke out she left her laboratory and research work to dedicate herself to radiological diagnostics on the battlefield. The great daughter of the Polish nation wrote letter to the War minister of France, Langvin: "As I cannot serve my motherland, I will serve my country of adoption". She established a front-line radiological service which she directed and in which she worked. She organised a network of 200 permanent radiological laboratories as well as 20 mobile car-borne ones, in which about 1,1 million radiological examinations were performed. She organised numerous training courses for doctors and technicians also for American Army radiologists. Skłodowska's activity was of tremendous significance during the war, but it also contributed to the common application of X-rays in French medicine. She was the first woman to receive a Gold Medal from the Radiological
Society of North America in 1922, and the American College of Radiology
in 1931. |