Happy Birthday Irene Joliot-Curie!

Irène Joliot-Curie (September 12, 1897 – March 17, 1956)

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The daughter of Marie Curie, Irène Joliot-Curie preserved the family legacy in chemistry by following her mother's footsteps in her studies of radioactive isotopes. Born on September 12, 1897 in Paris, France, she pursued a degree in science before being called out as a nurse radiographer in the First World War. Upon her return, she completed a doctorate degree for her thesis on the alpha rays of polonium, an element her mother had discovered just decades before.

She worked primarily with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, on radioactive elements. In 1935, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of artificially-produced radioactive isotopes. Their discovery meant that those involved in nuclear physics and medicine would not have to undergo the tedious task of attempting to separate the radioactive elements necessary for their work. As her sister Eve said of Irène, "Her sincere love of science, her gifts, inspired in her only one ambition: to work forever in that laboratory which she had seen go up."

Quotables

That one must do some work seriously and must be independent and not merely amuse oneself in life—this our mother [Marie Curie] has told us always, but never that science was the only career worth following. 
— Irène Joliot-Curie

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Post by The Scientista Foundation.

Post by The Scientista Foundation.

Sources:
"A Second Generation of Curies" American Institute of Physics. http://www.aip.org/history/curie/2ndgen1.htm

"Irene Joliot-Curie-- Biographical" The Official Web Site of the Nobel Prize. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1935/joliot-curie-bio.html

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