Characters in Rutherford's life
Irène Curie (1897-1956)
Irène Curie, the eldest daughter of the most famous pair of scientists, also formed a fruitful scientific partnership with her husband, Frédéric Joliot. Together with her husband, she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for the discovery of induced radioactivity and artificial radioactivity. However, she also distinguished herself in many other fields.
Her father, Pierre Curie, died in 1906, when she was just 8 years old. Throughout her life, Irène maintained a very close relationship with her mother, Marie Curie, following in her footsteps in the field of science, but also supporting her through all the trials she encountered in her life.
From both her parents, Irène inherited her passion for science, as well as her keen intelligence, which enabled her to immerse herself in her studies with determination and pass all her exams with flying colours. She was also an accomplished sportswoman in many fields.
Meetings between Irène Curie and Ernest Rutherford:
(to be completed)
1933: Brussels ( Solvay congress )
Images :
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Irène Curie circa 1925
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Eve, Marie and Irène, Sceaux, 1908
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Irène Curie in a radiology unit, Amiens, 1916
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Irène Curie accepting an honorary degree on behalf of her mother, University of Pennsylvania, 1921.
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Irène and her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Paris, 1935
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James Chadwick, Irène Joliot-Curie, Frédéric Joliot and Hans Spemann on the day they receveid their Nobel prize, Stockholm, 1935
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Irène Joliot-Curie, Under-Secretary of State for Science and Research, Paris, 1936
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Irène Joliot-Curie visits the anti-fascist refugee committee for a series of lectures, New York, 1948
Sources :
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Irène Joliot-Curie, Noelle Loriot
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In 1914, having just passed her baccalaureate and aged just 17, Irène accompanied her mother to the front to help her implement her idea of ‘X-ray cars’, vehicles equipped with X-ray machines designed to locate bullets and shrapnel in the bodies of the wounded.
She produced the X-rays and trained medical staff in the technique. She qualified as a nurse in 1915, before returning to her studies in physics and chemistry at the end of the war.
In 1920, she obtained her degree in physical sciences and began her research at the Curie Laboratory.
In 1921, she travelled to the United States with Marie and Eve. The aim was to fetch the gram of radium financed by an appeal for donations, at the instigation of the American journalist Marie Meloney.
In 1924, Irène met her mother's new employee, a young physics engineer called Frédéric Joliot, three years her junior. Irène and Frédéric married two years later. They had two children, Hélène (1927).
Irène and Frédéric worked together, leading to the discovery of induced radioactivity and artificial radioactivity.
Their scientific successes were rewarded by the joint award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, the same year that James Chadwick was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the neutron.
It is interesting to note that Irène and Frédéric had also discovered the neutron... but had not succeeded in interpreting their results in this way.
It should also be noted that one of the people who nominated the Joliot-Curie for the Nobel Prize was a certain Ernest Rutherford.
In 1936, she was appointed under-secretary of state for research in Léon Blum's government. She was one of the first 3 women to take part in a government in France (even though French women still didn't have the right to vote!).
She resigned after three months, as agreed, but she still had time to launch the project to create the CNRS, which would be implemented by her successor, Jean Perrin.
From 1946, she was one of the commissioners at the CEA (Commissariat à l'énergie atomique), where her husband was director.
That same year, she became director of the physics and chemistry laboratory at the Institut du Radium (the Curie laboratory). She held this position until her death, preparing the creation of a larger site in the southern suburbs of Paris.
She died of leukaemia on 17 March 1956, before the project could be completed.
As well as science, Irène Curie was involved in political action, notably against fascism and for women's right to vote.