Pierre Curie, 1859–1906

Abstract

The year 2006 marked 100 years since the death of Pierre Curie. It is therefore appropriate that we remember his life and his work, which was cut short by his untimely death from an accident on the Pont Neuf, Paris, on April 19, 1906. He had already accomplished much during his life, both before the discovery of radium with Marie Curie, in work co-authored with his brother Jacques on piezoelectricity, and afterwards, when he published the results of several experimental studies with radium and radon. He came from a medical family, and his grandfather Pierre Curie was a famous homeopathic physician. He has, in print, unfairly been relegated to the background—his own scientific contributions having been overtaken by the fame of Marie Curie, probably because she outlived him by 28 years.