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Laboratory Leaders

We stand on the shoulders of giants. Most of us take for granted earlier
discoveries that are the foundation of our work today. In our Q3 2018
edition, we introduced an exploration of teamwork in the laboratory.
The focus of our Laboratory Leaders feature starting in our Q4 2018
edition and continuing in the next several issues is Power Teams in the
Laboratory. We’re examining major discoveries made by scientists
who collaborated with others and were supported by teams as they
conducted their work. For these “power couples,” teamwork really did
make the dream work, and it continues to pave the way for others.
Power Teams in

the Laboratory

Part 2c: Pierre and Marie Skłodowska Curie | international acclaim results in recognition at home

In Parts 2a and 2b of this series (SCC Quarterly | Q1 and Q2 2019), we introduced you to
Pierre Curie and Maria Skłodowska Curie. Their dramatic story continues here in Part 2c …

W hen we left off in Part 2b, the Curies’ lives had completely changed. In June 1903, Marie had defended her doctoral
thesis, and the examination committee stated their belief that it represented the greatest scientific contribution ever
made in a doctoral thesis. In November 1903, the Royal Society of London presented the Curies with the Davy
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Medal for the most important discovery of the year in Chemistry. While Pierre was in London accepting this award , Marie
received word that Pierre had been named the winner of the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Henri Becquerel.
Although the nominating committee objected to including
a woman as a Nobel Laureate, Swedish mathematician The 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics was divided, one half
Magnus Goesta Mittag-Leffler, a committee member who awarded to Antoine Henri Becquerel “in recognition
was an advocate of women scientists, wrote to Pierre and of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his
advised him of the situation. Pierre replied, insisting that it discovery of spontaneous radioactivity”, the other half
would be a travesty not to include Marie because the original jointly to Pierre Curie and Marie Curie, née Skłodowska
research was hers—and she had conceived experiments “in recognition of the extraordinary
and generated theories about the nature of radioactivity. services they have rendered by their
The committee ultimately agreed to include her, making her joint researches on the radiation
the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and in December 1903, phenomena discovered by Professor
Becquerel and both Curies were awarded the 1903 Nobel Henri Becquerel.”
Prize in Physics.

The Curies’ citation was carefully worded to avoid specific mention of their discovery of polonium and radium. Chemists
on the nominating committee had insisted that the Curies might in the future deserve a Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their
discovery of those elements, and there remained some doubts about the elements, which had been isolated only in small
amounts. Thus, their physics prize mentioned only their collaborative work on Becquerel rays.

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Because of their teaching obligations and both being too ill to travel —most likely because of excessive exposure to
radioactive materials (and Marie had recently suffered a miscarriage)—the Curies were unable to go to Stockholm until
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June 1905 to receive the prize and for Pierre to deliver his Nobel lecture.

SCC Quarterly | Volume 5 • Issue 3 | Laboratory Leaders