Irena Jolio-Curie talking to her husband
Moderator: Zhang Meifang (Vice President and Associate Professor, Institute of Science and Technology History and Cultural Heritage, University of Science and Technology Beijing)
Irène Joliot-Curie (1897-1956) was the eldest daughter of the French physicist and renowned scientists Marie Curie and Pierre Curie. In 1935, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband, Jean Frederick Joliot-Curie, for her discovery of artificial radioactivity, which made the Curie family the most Nobel Prize-winning family to date.
Irena was born in Paris, France, in 1897. Her mother, Marie Curie, had always been very concerned about Irena's studies. At the age of 11, Marie Curie believed irena needed a more challenging environment to develop academic skills. Together with a number of French scholars, including the famous French physicist Paul Langzhiwan, Mary formed an organization called "Cooperation" to educate each other's children in the family. In 1914, Irena entered the Sorbonne Academy of Sciences, but unfortunately the outbreak of world war I interrupted her studies. At the time, she served in the army as a nurse. Irena assisted her mother in providing medical assistance to the wounded soldiers using the most advanced X-ray instruments at the time in the hospital. After the war, Irena returned to Paris to continue her studies at the Radium Institute, founded by her parents. During her PhD, she conducted research on the α decay of plutonium.
In 1924, when Irena was about to receive her doctorate, she became acquainted with the chemical engineer Frederick Joliot. From 1928 onwards, the two focused on the study of atomic nuclei. In 1934, they bombarded the aluminum foil with α rays of polonium and found that when the α source was removed, the aluminum foil was radioactive; its intensity also decreased exponentially over time. This radioactivity is formed by α particles hitting aluminum-27 to emit a neutron, forming unstable phosphorus-30, which emits positrons. They actually discovered a new radioactive substance: phosphorus-30. This major discovery brought Irena and Frederick widespread attention from the scientific community and were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. Irena's research team's research on radium nuclei paved the way for scientists including German scientists Strassmann and Ritz Meitner to study nuclear fission. The famous Meitner calculation process proves the results of Irena's research: nuclear fission exists.
However, years of research on radioactive materials have exposed Irena to radiation for a long time. Like her mother, Irena was also diagnosed with leukemia. Although antibiotics were supplemented by a series of surgical treatments that alleviated her pain to some extent, her condition continued to deteriorate. However, she dragged the sick body and still insisted on the job. On March 17, 1956, Irena died in Paris.
Before and after World War II, Irena and her husband resolutely sided with the anti-fascists. Fearing that the results would be used for military purposes and would have disastrous consequences, they deposited all documents on nuclear fission in the vaults of the French Academy of Sciences in October 1939. It was not reactivated until 1949. At the same time, Irena was actively involved in campaigns to promote women's education. She has served on the French Women's Federation and the French Committee of the World Peace Council. However, because of her and her husband's political views, the French authorities removed Frederick from all positions on the pretext of being suspected of being communist. Irena was also forced to quit the Atomic Energy Commission and was disqualified from membership by the American Chemical Society.
Irena's life witnessed two world wars, and as a result, she has always been cautious about the application of scientific and technological achievements. Born in a family of science, she received a first-class science education from an early age, which made her full of research enthusiasm for science. At the same time, her efforts for world peace and women's education are well known. Her relentless pursuit of science, her desire for peace, and her selfless spirit of scientific research are all role models for scientists to learn from.