Honorary YPs: Spotlight on Florence Nightingale & Marie Curie

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In celebration of Women’s History Month, YPNation is profiling notable women from history who achieved success or a notable accomplishment in their respective fields when they were in their twenties or thirties. And because of their impressive work, we’re recognizing these women as “honorary YPs.”
 
For the final installment of this four-part series, we turn to the sciences and honor Florence Nightingale and Marie Curie.
 
Marie Curie (1867-1934)
Marie Curie’s scientific discoveries changed the field of physics and chemistry and earned her not one, but two, Nobel Prizes.  In 1903 at the age of 36, Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, which was just one of the incredible “firsts” accomplished by this brilliant physicist.
 
Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland to two schoolteachers. As a teenager, Curie worked as a governess in order to finance the medical education of her older sister, Bronya, in Paris. Their family could not otherwise have afforded it. In 1891 Curie, then 24, moved to Paris and enrolled at the Sorbonne with financial support from Bronya and Curie’s family. Two years later, Curie received her degree in physics and graduated first in her class. She received her master’s degree in mathematics the following year, finishing second in her class.
 
In 1894 Curie was introduced to Pierre Curie, a fellow scientist and professor. The pair married the next year, and they would be frequent collaborators on scientific research throughout their union. In 1897 Pierre accepted a job at the School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry of the City of Paris, and Marie was given lab space there to conduct her research for her doctorate. During this time, she became interested in French physicist Antione-Henri Becquerel’s discovery that uranium emitted rays that contained high amounts of energy. Curie tested other elements to see if they caused the nearby air to conduct electricity like uranium did. She created the term “radioactivity” to describe this force and later concluded that only thorium and uranium were radioactive.
 
The following year Curie and Pierre were able to extract a new element from mineral ores that was more radioactive than uranium—they called it “polonium” in honor of Curie’s homeland. A few months later, the pair discovered radium, another radioactive substance. They were able to prove the chemical individuality of radium in 1902 by determining its atomic weight — a vital step in proving the existence of an element. Around this time, Curie took a position as a physics lecturer at the Ecole Normal Superieure. She was the first woman to teach there. In 1903 Curie became the first woman to earn her doctorate in France, finishing summa cum laude.
 
Curie and Pierre were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for their efforts in expanding scientific knowledge about radioactivity. Becquerel shared in the prize. The following year, Pierre was named professor of physics of the Faculty of Sciences at the Sorbonne; Curie became chief of his research laboratory. In 1906 Pierre was tragically killed by a heavy wagon in Paris traffic. The University of Paris invited Curie to take over Pierre’s teaching position and Curie became the first woman to ever receive a post in higher education in France.
 
Curie’s second Nobel came in 1911 for her service to the advancement of chemistry with the discovery of radium and polonium. She was the first scientist--man or woman--to win the prize twice. During World War I, she instructed army medical personnel in the application of radiology and researched the development of the use of x-radiology, assisted by her oldest daughter Irene.
 
By the 1920s, Curie was widely respected and admired for her work. The Curie Foundation was established in 1920 to accept donations for research, and she was invited to take part in the League of Nations International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation in 1922. She died in 1934 of leukemia--a result of her exposure to radium.
 
Her ashes were enshrined in the Pantheon in Paris in 1995; she was the first woman to receive this honor.
 
Source: Notable Women Scientists
 
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
Florence Nightingale is considered by many to be the founder of modern nursing, but she was also an advocate for military hospital reform, medical care and public health standards.
 
Nightingale was born into a wealthy and educated British family. As a teenager, she felt that God was calling her into a life of service. But her parents did not support her interest in nursing, as it was seen as a profession for the uneducated, lower class. Nightingale spent a few years traveling, but still determined to be a nurse eventually went on to study nursing at a German school and hospital, the Institute for Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserwerth.
 
In 1853 Nightingale returned to London and became superintendent of a women’s hospital. Shortly afterward, reports surfaced in England of the terrible conditions in the Crimea where British and French forces were battling the Russians. In the fall of 1854, the British government asked Nightingale, then 34, to travel with a small group of nurses to Scutari (now known as Üsküdar) in Turkey. When she arrived, she was horrified by the appalling and unsanitary conditions at the British military hospital at Scutari.
 
It was in Scutari where Nightingale’s skills as a nurse earned her the reputation of the “Lady with the Lamp.” But Nightingale proved her skills went well beyond nursing, she also improved sanitation, organization and efficiency at the hospital. Nightingale’s record keeping and strong math skills—a subject in which she had excelled since childhood—allowed her to calculate that men were seven times more likely to die of diseases, such as cholera or typhus, in the military hospital than die on the battle fields. Nightingale believed the poor sanitary conditions contributed to this statistic and her reforms dramatically reduced the soldiers’ mortality rate by approximately two-thirds. *
 
Nightingale returned to England in 1856 and was hailed a hero. Unfortunately, she soon fell ill, possibly from Crimean Fever, and was in poor health for the rest of her life. She was unable to return to nursing, but she was an active advocate for hospital and medical care reform. She wrote extensively on nursing, medical training, hospital planning and efficiency and public health standards and published several books. A fund was established in Nightingale’s name and donations helped create the Nightingale Training School and Home for Nurses in London in 1860.
 
In 1907, Nightingale was honored with the Order of Merit from King Edward VII for her contributions to public health. She was the first woman to receive this honor. 
 
*Source: World Eras, Vol. 9: Industrial Revolution in Europe, 1750-1914
 
Other Sources: Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd edition; World of Health 
 
Check out parts one, two and three, and read about this young professional woman who started a non-profit to help female entrepreneurs. 
 
 
(Photo of Marie Curie (nee Skłodowska)  at 16-years-old)