Very shortly after Marie Curie became a world famous, Nobel-Prize-winning physicist, she also became a 38-year-old widow with two small children. Against all odds and several traditions, she managed to take over the lab where she had worked alongside her husband. She also assumed his teaching position, making her the first woman ever to lecture at the Sorbonne. In her unique role as laboratory director and professor, she could not help but inspire scores of other women who aspired to a life in science, and attract them to her lab. Men, too, came from as far away as India, China and Japan to work at the world famous Radium Institute that the Polish-born Mme. Curie—scientist, mentor, mother, war hero, humanitarian — created in Paris.

Dava Sobel is the author of Longitude, Galileo’s Daughter, The Planets, A More Perfect Heaven, And the Sun Stood Still, The Glass Universe, and, most recently, The Elements of Marie Curie. A former New York Times science reporter, she established and continues to edit the monthly “Meter” poetry column in Scientific American, now in its sixth year.

We invite you to support the author by purchasing a copy of their book from Browseabout Books by clicking HERE. Call-in orders are accepted at (302) 226-2665 or you can stop by the store to purchase a copy. For store hours, please visit their website.

This event is co-hosted by the History Book Festival, the first book festival in the nation devoted to the topic of history.

The library's “Science and Society - Making Sense of the World Around Us” lecture series is co-organized and moderated by Fred Dylla, Executive Director Emeritus of the American Institute of Physics and author of Scientific Journeys, Linda Dylla, former public information officer at the Jefferson Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy, and Colin Norman, the former News Editor at Science.

NOTE: this meeting is being conducted through Zoom. You MUST REGISTER to receive instructions for joining the meeting.

If you have need assistance with registration or getting your Zoom invitation, please email us.

Basic written instructions for using Zoom may be found here and a brief video tutorial may be found here. Closed captioning is available for all our sessions. Information on enabling closed captioning in Zoom may be found here.