Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934)

 Born in Poland. She is recognised both as a physicist and as a chemist. The discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in 1896 inspired Marie and her husband Pierre Curie in their researches and analyses which led to the isolation of radium and polonium elements. She was the first person to be awarded two Nobel Prizes- for Physics in 1903 and for Chemistry in 1911.