Pierre Curie

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       http://wikipedia.org/

Born: 15-May-1859
Birthplace: Paris, France
Died: 19-Apr-1906
Location of death: Paris, France
Cause of death: Accident - Misc
Remains: Buried, Curie family plot, Sceaux, Paris, France

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Physicist

Nationality: France
Executive summary: Early investigator of radiation

French physicist, born in Paris on the 15th of May 1859, and was educated at the Sorbonne, where he subsequently became professor of physics. Although he had previously published meritorious researches on piezoelectricity, the magnetic properties of bodies at different temperatures, and other topics, he was chiefly known for his work on radium carried out jointly with his wife, Marie Curie. After the discovery of the radioactive properties of uranium by Henri Becquerel in 1896, it was noticed that some minerals of uranium, such as pitchblende, were more active than the element itself, and this circumstance suggested that such minerals contained small quantities of some unknown substance or substances possessing radioactive properties in. a very high degree. Acting on this surmise the Curies subjected a large amount of pitchblende to a laborious process of fractionation, with the result that in 1898 they announced the existence in it of two highly radioactive substances, polonium and radium. In subsequent years they did much to elucidate the remarkable properties of these two substances, one of which, polonium, came to be regarded as one of the transformation products of the other. In 1903 they were awarded the Davy medal of the Royal Society in recognition of this work, and in the same year the Nobel prize for physics was divided between them and Henri Becquerel. Professor Curie, who was elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1905, was run over by a dray and killed instantly in Paris on the 19th of April 1906.

Father: Eugène Curie (doctor)
Mother: Sophie-Claire Depouilly
Brother: Jacques Curie (b. 29-Oct-1856)
Wife: Marie Curie (physicist, m. 1895)
Daughter: Irène Joliot-Curie (Nobel laureate for Chemistry)

University: PhD, Sorbonne
Professor: Sorbonne (1900-06)

Nobel Prize for Physics 1903 (with Marie Curie and Henri Becquerel)
Davy Medal 1903 (with Marie Curie)
Matteucci Medal 1904 (with Marie Curie)
Units of Measure radioactivity
Asteroid Namesake 7000 Curie
Chemical Element Namesake curium (Cm, 96)
Exhumed 1995