The trailblazing Polish female scientist was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize in physics and the only one so far to have been awarded the accolade in two different areas, physics and chemistry.
On December 10, 1903, Skłodowska-Curie was awarded a Nobel Prize in physics for her groundbreaking investigations of radioactivity, sharing the prize with her husband Pierre Curie and French scientist Henri Becquerel.
On December 10, 1911, Skłodowska-Curie, who was known outside her home country as Marie Curie, won a Nobel Prize in chemistry for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium.
She was also the first woman to become a professor at the Sorbonne, the first lady among the members of the National Academy of Medicine in Paris and the first woman whose ashes were enshrined in the Pantheon in Paris.
Skłodowska-Curie was born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867. She died of aplastic anemia on July 4, 1934, a result of years of exposure to radiation through her work.
One place to find out more about her legacy is Warsaw's Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum, a cultural institution co-organized by the Polish Chemical Society.
Radio Poland's Danuta Isler visited the museum some time ago and brought back this report.
Click on the audio player above to listen.