Maria Sklodowska-CurieDistinguished Polish scientist, Maria Sklodowska-Curie was granted the Nobel prize twice, for physics and for chemistry. She started her scientific career in Warsaw, emigrated and spent the rest of her life in France, where she married Pierre Curie. Working together, they built up the science of radioactivity and published pioneer works on nuclear physics and chemistry. In 1898, they discovered polonium and radium and five years later received the Nobel prize for physics. Since 1906, Maria Sklodowska-Curie headed (after her husband’s death) the chair of radioactivity at the Sorbonne in Paris. In later years, she organised the Radium Institute in Paris, also helping in the establishment of a similar centre in Warsaw. The Nobel prize for chemistry was granted to her in 1911, in recognition for her research works on the properties of radioactive elements. Other Polish researchers also contributed greatly to the European science. For example, Stefan Banach – cofounder of functional analysis and linear spaces, Hugo Steinhaus – specialising in the theory of probability, Stefan Bryla (bridge constructor), Tadeusz Kotarbinski (praxeology) Kazimierz Nitsch (founder of dialectology). Nowadays, scientific discoveries are usually a result of collective research and effort, and they are made in spacious, modern, well-equipped laboratories or industrial establishment employing many scientists. Polish researchers are among them. |
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