In 1903 Marie Curie became the first woman to ever win a Nobel Prize. 

In 1906 after her husband’s tragic death Marie Curie became the first woman to hold the position of ‘professor’ at the University of Paris. 

Five years after Pierre’s death, as a widow, Marie curie had a relationship with an old student of Pierre’s. The relationship was exploited however and turned into a scandal

 by her academic opponents. Although the man had been estranged from his wife, the press accused Marie of being a ‘Jewish homewrecker’. An angry mob formed outside her home and she was forced to seek refuge with her daughters in a friend’s home.

Her daughter later commented on the hypocrisy of the French press at the time. She said they portrayed her mother as an unworthy foreigner when she was nominated for a French honor but portrayed as a French heroine when she received foreign acknowledgement for her work.

In 1911 Marie Curie received her second Nobel Prize in Chemistry for recognition of the discovery of radium and polonium. A month after she received her Nobel prize she was hospitalized for depression and a kidney ailment. For approximately the next 14 months she completely avoided public life.