Mikulski Opens Senate Exhibit on Madame Marie Sklodowska-Curie

This is news from Oct 19: Mikulski Opens Senate Exhibit on Madame Marie Sklodowska-Curie

Exhibit Sponsored by Embassy of Poland Celebrates 100th Anniversary of Madame Curie’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry

October 19, 2011

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) was joined by the Embassy of Poland this week to open an exhibit on the life and accomplishments of Madame Marie Skłodowska-Curie. The exhibit celebrates the 100th anniversary of Madame Curie's Nobel Prize in chemistry and is on display in the Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda to mark National Chemistry Week.

"When I think about Madame Curie and all that she has meant for science, I think of all the possibilities and potential for women, for those who have a passion for science, and for those who pursue the passion of intellectual discovery," Senator Mikulski said. "The world has long recognized Marie Skłodowska Curie, and it's time that we all know her so that she can re-inspire generations – not only through her science but through her life."

Senator Mikulski was joined by the Embassy of Poland Deputy Chief of Mission Maciej Pisarski and Dr. Bradley Miller, Director of the Office of International Affairs at the American Chemical Society.

The United Nations has declared 2011 the International Year of Chemistry, in part to mark the centennial anniversary of Madame Curie's Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This year also marks the 90th anniversary of her first visit to the United States in 1921 where she was presented with a gram of radium from President Warren G. Hardin to continue her studies.

The exhibit was displayed earlier this year at the European Parliament in Brussels and was prepared by the Polish Academy of Sciences with the collaboration of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Museum in Warsaw.

Senator Mikulski's remarks at the opening of the exhibit are available in the following formats –

Web Video: http://mikulski.senate.gov/media/video/10-17-11.cfm

Still Photos: http://www.mikulski.senate.gov/media/photogallery/10-17-11.cfm



Senator Mikulski's remarks, as delivered, follow:

"It is an enormous honor for me to open the Curie exhibit here in the rotunda of the Russell Building. This is the 100th anniversary of Madame Curie winning her Nobel Prize on her own.

"I want to welcome the Deputy Chief of Mission from the Polish Embassy, Mr. Pisarski; Dr. Bradley Miller, representing the American Chemical Society; and to all those who will come into our Capitol to learn more about this extraordinary and very special woman.

"In 1911, Madame Skłodowska Curie stepped onto the world stage for the second time to win a Nobel Prize – this time in her own name and in her own right. In 1903, she stepped onto the world stage as a small, petite woman with her beloved husband, Pierre. When she was just 36 years old, they won a Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of Radium. Pierre and Marie knew it was a new century and it was going to be a century of chemistry, of physics and of discovery.

"They wanted to not only use their discoveries, but to use their discoveries for peace and to save lives. It was their belief that if you were a scientist and you made a discovery, your discovery belonged to the common heritage of mankind. They wanted to share their discoveries with the world. They also believed that if you were going to discover something that was going to help the world, you should benefit the world – but you shouldn't profit from it.

"They were amazing scientists and idealists. They took the money from their first Nobel Prize and reinvested it in their own laboratory, the famous Radium Institute. It was profound. They were busy working together, working on new projects, but their lives together were not meant to be. One sad day, Pierre stepped off a curb and was hit in a tragic horse and carriage accident. He passed away. The loss of Pierre left Marie Skłodowska Curie a bereaved widow, a talented scientist, and, as some have called her, 'a magnificent, obsessive genius.'

"While raising her family as a widow, she continued her own scientific discovery. She discovered a new chemical element and named it Polonium, after her beloved homeland. For that discovery, she won the 1911 Nobel Prize for Chemistry in her own right.

"The world has long recognized Marie Skłodowska Curie, and it's time that we all know her so that she can re-inspire generations – not only through her science but through her life.

"I'm a big fan of Madame Curie. When I was a little girl growing up in Baltimore during World War II, my parents took me to see a famous movie about her. They wanted me to know the story of Poland; they wanted me to know the story of this brilliant woman. At age eight, I saw this Greer Garson play, 'Madame Curie.' I knew then that I wanted to be just like her. When I came home, I begged my mother and father to buy me a chemistry set. I wanted to be a scientist. I wanted to win a Nobel Prize. I wasn't sure how to spell it, but I wanted to win it.

"The story mesmerized me and I worked hard in my science classes in school. I had hoped, as a young high school girl and as a young college student, to have a career in science, but it was not meant to be. I am good at understanding science, but I'm not very good at doing science. So I shifted my career to social science, to social work and to politics. I now use my talents in government to fund those that do science.

"When I think about Madame Curie and all that she has meant for science, I think of all the possibilities and potential for women, for those who have a passion for science, and for those who pursue the passion of intellectual discovery.

"Madame Curie was raised in an occupied Poland, which was partitioned into three parts. Warsaw, where she lived with her parents, was occupied by the Russians. But she, in an enlightened family for its time, was able to go to Paris to study and to do her work. It was there that she met Pierre, and as they say, the rest of history.

"But the other two parts that they don't know are Madame Curie's patriotism and her passion for peace. While she was busy doing science, she also wanted to save lives. During World War I, she wanted to help those who were on the battlefield. She and her daughter Irene conceived the idea of taking rough, even primitive equipment that could be used for x-rays to the battlefields. She got the fashionable women of Paris to donate the money to buy the equipment and taxi cabs. She trained young women to go to the battlefield, and out they went to the outskirts of France and Paris. The French government credits her with saving thousands of Allied lives because during surgery, they never knew where to find the bullet. Where the bullet enters is not always where the bullet goes. Thanks to Curie and her wonderful team of women – led by her own daughter – they were able to find out how to do this. She was the 'Mother of MASH Medicine.'

"We salute her for her efforts and the French government recognized her for it. Again, after the war, she became a scientific advisor to the League of Nations. She joined hands with Albert Einstein, Max Plank and others who wanted scientific discovery to always be in the hands of those who pursue freedom. And she wanted her work to go for peace.

"If she was alive today, she would love the MRI's, she would love the sonograms. She would love knowing that we have an Office of Women's Health at NIH. And if I know Madame Curie, she would wonder, 'how can I get in on it, and how can my great-granddaughter do it, and who's this woman Mikulski – I won the first Nobel Prize, she gets elected to the Senate.' Let's hear it for Polish women who just don't take no for an answer!

"So today I am pleased to open this exhibit, and I know she'd be pleased at what I'm doing in the Senate today. After I open this exhibit, I will be going to the Senate Floor to manage my appropriations bill that will fund scientific research in astronomy, chemistry and physics, as well as the National Space Agency, and the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She would love it all.

"Today, we love Marie Skłodowska Curie and with love, open this exhibit."