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Irène Joliot-Curie (French: [iʁɛn ʒɔljo kyʁi] (listen); née Curie; 12 September 1897 – 17 March 1956) was a French chemist, physicist and politician, the elder daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of induced radioactivity, making them the second-ever married couple (after her parents) to win the Nobel Prize, while adding to the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. This made the Curies the family with the most Nobel laureates to date. She was also one of the first three women to be a member of a French government, becoming undersecretary for Scientific Research under the Popular Front in 1936. Both children of the Joliot-Curies, Hélène and Pierre, are also prominent scientists.

In 1945, she was one of the six commissioners of the new French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) created by de Gaulle and the Provisional Government of the French Republic. She died in Paris on 17 March 1956 from an acute leukemia linked to her exposure to polonium and X-rays.

Biography

Early life and education

Irène was born in Paris, France, in 1897 and was the first of Marie and Pierre's two daughters. Her sister was Eve. [4] They lost their father early on in 1906 due to a horse-drawn wagon incident and Marie was left to raise them.[4] Education was important to Marie and Irène's education began at a school near the Paris Observatory.[5] This school was chosen because it had a more challenging curriculum than the school nearby the Curie's home.[5] In 1906, it was obvious Irène was talented in mathematics and her mother chose to focus on that instead of public school.[5] Marie joined forces with a number of eminent French scholars, including the prominent French physicist Paul Langevin to form "The Cooperative", which included a private gathering of nine students that were children of the most distinguished academics in France. Each contributed to educating these children in their respective homes.[5] The curriculum of The Cooperative was varied and included not only the principles of science and scientific research but such diverse subjects as Chinese and sculpture and with great emphasis placed on self-expression and play.[6] Irène studied in this environment for about two years.

Irène and her sister Ève were sent to Poland to spend the summer with their Aunt Bronia (Marie's sister) when Irène was thirteen.[4] Irène's education was so rigorous that she still had a German and trigonometry lesson every day of that break.[4] Irène re-entered a more orthodox learning environment by going back to high school at the Collège Sévigné in central Paris until 1914. She then went onto the Faculty of Science at the Sorbonne to complete her baccalaureate, until 1916 when her studies were interrupted by World War I.

Personal life

Irène and Frédéric hyphenated their surnames to Joliot-Curie after they married in 1926. The Joliot-Curies had two children, Hélène, born eleven months after they were married, and Pierre, born in 1932.

Between 1941 and 1943 during World War II, Joliot-Curie contracted tuberculosis and was forced to spend time convalescing in Switzerland.[14] Concern for her own health together with the anguish of her husband's being in the resistance against the German troops and her children in occupied France was hard to bear.[14] She did make several dangerous visits back to France, enduring detention by German troops at the Swiss border on more than one occasion. Finally, in 1944, Joliot-Curie judged it too dangerous for her family to remain in France and she took her children back to Switzerland.[14] Later in September 1944, after not hearing from Frédéric for months, Irene and her children were finally able to rejoin him.

Irène fought through these struggles to advocate for her own personal views.[9] She was a passionate member of the feminist movement, especially regarding the sciences, and also advocated for peace. She continually applied to the French Academy of Sciences, an elite scientific organization, knowing that she would be denied. She did so to draw attention to the fact they did not accept women in the organization.[9] Irène was also involved in many speaking functions such as the International Women's Day conference.[9] She also played a big role for the French contingent at the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace, which promoted the World Peace movement.[9] In 1948, during a strike involving coal miners, Joliot-Curie reached out to Paris Newsletters to convince families to temporarily adopt the children of the coal miners during the strike. The Joliot-Curies adopted two girls during that time.

In 1956, after a final convalescent period in the French Alps, Joliot-Curie was admitted to the Curie Hospital in Paris, where she died on 17 March at the age of 58 from leukemia, possibly due to radiation from polonium-210. Frédéric's health was also declining, and he died in 1958 from liver disease, which too was said to be the result of overexposure to radiation.

Joliot-Curie was an atheist and anti-war. When the French government held a national funeral in her honor, Irène's family asked to have the religious and military portions of the funeral omitted. Frédéric was also given a national funeral by the French government.

Joliot-Curie's daughter, Hélène Langevin-Joliot, went on to become a nuclear physicist and professor at the University of Paris. Joliot-Curie's son, Pierre Joliot, went on to become a biochemist at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

Notable honours

Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for the discovery of artificial radioactivity with Frédéric Joliot-Curie.

Barnard Gold Medal for Meritorious Service to Science in 1940 with Frédéric Joliot-Curie.

Officer of the Legion of Honor.

Her name was added to the Monument to the X-ray and Radium Martyrs of All Nations erected in Hamburg, Germany.

Courtesy -- wikipedia
- Irène Joliot-Curie

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