Marie Curie. Portrait of Marie Curie (1867-1934), Polish-French radioactivity pioneer, holding a glowing test tube of radium in her laboratory. Born Marya Sklodowska, she moved to Paris, France, in 1891 to study physics. She began research into radioactivity in uranium shortly after its discovery by Bequerel and after marrying her co- worker Pierre Curie. Their work led to the discovery of polonium and radium and won them the Nobel Prize for physics in 1903. Marie also won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1911, five years after Pierre's death in a road accident. She died of leukaemia, probably caused by exposure to radioactivity. Illustration from 1921.