Nobel Prize in Physics Recipient. Pierre Curie received recognition as a Frenchman for receiving half of the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics, which he shared with his wife Marie, while the other half was awarded to Henri Bequer. He and his wife discovered radium and polonium in their investigation of radioactivity. He is considered one of the fathers of modern physics. Born the son of a physician, he was educated by his father, mastering in mathematics. Entering the Faculty of Sciences at the Sorbonne in Paris, he advanced easily with a masters degree in 1878, becoming an assistant until 1882, and at that point, placed in charged of all practical research in the Physics and Industrial Chemistry School. In 1880 he first demonstrated, with his brother Jacques Curie, the direct Piezoelectricity effect, an electrical charge between two solid items. In 1895 he received a Doctorate in Science Degree, was appointed Professor of Physics, promoted to Professor in the Faculty of Sciences in 1900, and Titular Professor in 1904. In 1894 he met Marie Sklodowska, a Polish beauty who had a scientific mind, and the next year on July 26, 1895, they were married. The couple had two daughters, Irene and Eva. Irene and her husband were scientists, receiving jointly the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Eva's talents were in the art of literature and music, as she was an accomplished pianist and was published, including her mother's biography. Curie voluntarily exposed himself to radiation to test its effects in 1900. He refused a worthy advancement as a department chairman at the University of Geneva to stay and continue researching with his wife in Paris. Besides his Nobel Prize, he was elected to Academy of Science in 1905, and he received the Royal Society's Davy Medal in 1903, which he shared jointly with his wife. He was killed instantly after being run over by a horse-drawn wagon with a heavy load on the street rue Dauphine in Paris. His heartbroken widow continued their research and his complete works were published in 1908.