Marie CURIE was a Polish-born French physicist and chemist who is best known for her pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two different sciences. She is also credited with the discovery of the elements radium and polonium. Her work with radium led to the development of X-ray technology and treatments for cancer. She was the codiscoverer of radium, along with her husband Pierre CURIE.