Joliot-Curie, Irène, << zhaw LYOH koo REE, ee REHN >> (1897-1956), a French physicist, shared the 1935 Nobel Prize in chemistry with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie. The Joliot-Curies discovered that radioactive elements could be created artificially.
Irène Curie was born Sept. 12, 1897, in Paris. She was the daughter of the famous physicists Marie and Pierre Curie. During World War I (1914-1918), at first assisting her mother, she used X-ray technology in military hospitals and trained radiological technicians. Irène then graduated from the Sorbonne in Paris. She earned a doctorate for work on radioactivity in polonium in 1925.
In 1926, Irène married French physical chemist Frédéric Joliot, who had joined Marie Curie’s Radium Institute in 1925. In 1934, the couple discovered they could make stable elements radioactive by bombarding them with nuclear particles.
In 1946, Irène became a member of the French Atomic Energy Commission, which her husband headed. Both lost their positions because of their Communist ties. Nonetheless, she received a state funeral following her death on March 17, 1956.
