Albert Einstein said: "Of all celebrated beings, Maria Sklodowska-Curie is one of the rarest since she would not be corrupted by fame."

Maria Sklodowska-Curie was one of the first women scientists to win worldwide recognition and one of the greatest scientists of the XXth century. She had degrees in mathematics and physics. A winner of two Nobel Prizes, in Physics in 1903 and in Chemistry in 1911, she pioneered studies of radium and polonium as well as of radioactivity.

Perhaps the most famous of all women scientists, Maria Sklodowska-Curie is known for her many firsts:

—She was the first to use a term 'radioactivity.'

—She was the first woman in Europe to receive a doctorate in science.

—She was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. The prize, jointly awarded to Maria Sklodowska-Curie, her husband Pierre and Henri Becquerel was for their discovery of radioactivity.

—She was the first female lecturer, professor and head of the Sorbonne University laboratory in Paris in 1906.

—She won an unprecedented second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, in 1911 for her discovery and isolation of pure radium and radium components.

—She was the first person ever to receive two Nobel Prizes.

—She was the first mother—Nobel Prize Laureate of a daughter—Nobel Prize Laureate. Her older daughter, Irene Joliot-Curie received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935.

—She is the first woman laid to rest under the famous Pantheon dome in Paris.

Maria Sklodowska-Curie's achievements include twenty gold medals, nineteen degrees and other numerous international honors.

'Graduate Student Cookbook' commented: "Marie Sklodowska-Curie was an over-achiever who cooked, cleaned, discovered radium, received two Nobel Prizes and raised a Nobel Prize-winning daughter but who never forgot how to make a good pierogi [popular Polish dish]."