Joliot-Curie, Irene

(1897-1956)

   physicist, Nobel laureate

   Born in Paris, the daughter of marie and pierre curie, Irene Joliot-Curie did much of her research in collaboration with her husband, Frédéric joliot-curie. In 1925, she received a doctorate from the university of Paris for her work on alpha particles and continued assisting her mother at the Radium institute, where she met Frédéric Joliot, whom she married in 1926. They subsequently worked together and both assumed the surname of Joliot-Curie. specializing in nuclear physics and inspired by the research of the German physicist Walter Bothe, they made the significant discovery that radioactive elements can be artificially prepared from stable elements (1933). In separate experiments, they bombarded aluminum foil and boron with alpha particles, temporarily changing the aluminum into radioactive phosphorus and producing a radioactive form of nitrogen from the boron. This was the first time artificial radioactivity had been created. in 1936, irene Joliot-Curie became a professor at the university of Paris and also undersecretary of state for scientific research. she was a member of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) from 1946 to 1951, and helped to develop the first French atomic reserve. After 1947, she served as the director of the institute of Radium. With her husband, she received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1935 and became an officer in the legion of honor in 1939. She also received many other honors for her contributions to nuclear science. she died in 1956 from leukemia, which she contracted in the course of her work.