An internationally known public figure (1919-1934)

In 1909, the Pasteur Institute and the University of Paris signed a partnership to build a modern research laboratory for Marie Curie. It was to become the Radium Institute, financed by the legacy the important 19th‑Century philanthropist Daniel Iffla, known as Osiris (1825-1907).

The Institute opened in 1914 at 11 rue Pierre Curie (which has since been renamed rue Pierre et Marie Curie). Marie was Director of the Physics and Chemistry laboratory in the Curie Pavilion until her death in 1934.

Once the war was over, Irene Curie became her mother’s personal laboratory assistant. Frederic Joliot took over her position in 1924, while Irene was preparing her thesis, just two years before the pair were to be married.

[To find out more about the Curie Laboratory, take a look at our online collection of logbooks and progress reports.]

In 1921, the American journalist Mary Meloney (1878-1843), an admirer of Curie’s work, organised a fundraiser in the United States, putting together a committee of wealthy American women. The purpose was to offer Marie Curie a gram of radium, worth at that time around $100 000 dollars (equivalent to approximately $1,355,000 in today’s money).

Accompanied by her daughters, Marie travelled to the United States, where she received a special welcome during her time there throughout May and June of 1921. Over the six week trip, she travelled along the east coast of the United States.

The President himself, Warren G. Harding, presented her with a golden key during an official ceremony at the White House on 20 May. The key opened a casket containing one gram of radium.

Having been accepted as a major figure in scientific circles, Marie Curie was invited to participate in numerous scientific and medical conferences around the world.

Her discoveries, her Nobel Prizes, and her commitment to research and fighting cancer earned her the recognition of her peers.

Marie Curie gradually gained greater international recognition. She visited many countries to promote the scientific work conducted in her laboratory, and research more generally.

She became the Vice President of the Commission for Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations in Geneva. There, she worked alongside Albert Einstein (1879‑1955), who she met at the first Physics Solvay Council, and the philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941). The Commission aimed to strengthen and consolidate initiatives supporting culture, science and peace.

Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie produced for the first time, at the Radium Institute, artificial radioactive isotopes in January 1934. Marie had the satisfaction of seeing her daughter and son-in-law making a major discovery in her laboratory.

However, unfortunately she did not get to witness the Joliot-Curie’s being awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in December 1935; she died of leukaemia on 4 July 1934 in Sancellemoz in the Haute-Savoie region in the French Alps. Her illness was clearly caused by her work on radioactivity and the use of x-rays during the First World War. 

Marie Curie was a pioneer. Through her never-ending research work, she opened up an entirely new branch of physics. As the first woman to receive the recognition of the scientific community, she was a source of inspiration for many scientists, women in particular, throughout the world.