Marie Curie: What to know about the first woman to win Nobel Prize

Curie continued to break barriers after death when she was nominated to be the first woman enshrined in the Panthéon in Paris.

Marie took to academia, earning rewards for a number of subjects in school, but it was math and physics -- the subjects her father taught -- that most captured her attention and imagination. Poor as the family was, Marie and her sister, Bronisława, made a deal: Marie would fund her sister’s premedical education, and eventually the favor would be returned. Marie followed her sister to Paris, sitting in on lectures at the world-famous Sorbonne, where she met famous physicists and scientists who continued to spark her interest.