Irène Joliot-Curie (12.09.1897 - 17.03.1956) was a French physicist and radiochemist. She was the daughter of P. Curie and M. Skłodowska-Curie. She was born in Paris. She graduated from the University of Paris (1920). From 1918 she worked at the Radium Institute under Marie Curie. In 1925 she defended her doctoral thesis, and the following year she began research together with her husband F. Joliot-Curie.
After the death of M. Curie in 1934 she became director of the Radium Institute and head of the chair of physics at the University of Paris. In 1936 she was assistant to the secretary of state for scientific research in the French government, and in 1946—50 she did a great deal of work at the Commissariat for Atomic Energy. Her research concerned radioactivity, nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry. In 1934, together with F. Joliot-Curie, she discovered the phenomenon of artificial radioactivity (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1935) and obtained artificial radioactive isotopes. Continuing their research on artificial radioactivity, the Joliot-Curies discovered in 1934 a new kind of radioactive transformation — positron radioactivity. Earlier (1931), having repeated the well-known Bothe — Becker experiments and investigated the beryllium radiation produced when beryllium is bombarded with fast alpha particles, Irène and Frédéric concluded that it was not electromagnetic but rather corpuscular in nature. The results of these experiments and their correct interpretation led J. Chadwick in 1932 to the discovery of the neutron.
In 1938, studying the radioactivity of uranium induced by neutrons, she established together with P. Savitch that one of the products of the nuclear reaction is not a transuranic element, as was supposed at the time, but lanthanum, an element from the middle of Mendeleev's periodic table. Checking I. Curie's experiments soon afterwards, the German physicists O. Hahn and F. Strassmann discovered the fission of uranium nuclei under the action of neutrons. Irène Curie was a well-known public figure. During the fascist occupation of France (1940—44) she took an active part in the struggle to free her homeland from fascism. After the war she campaigned persistently against the use of atomic energy for military purposes.
She was a member of the World Peace Council. An honorary member of a number of academies of sciences and scientific societies, and a foreign corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1947). The C. Matteucci (1932) and A. Lavoisier (1954) Medals.
After the death of M. Curie in 1934 she became director of the Radium Institute and head of the chair of physics at the University of Paris. In 1936 she was assistant to the secretary of state for scientific research in the French government, and in 1946—50 she did a great deal of work at the Commissariat for Atomic Energy. Her research concerned radioactivity, nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry. In 1934, together with F. Joliot-Curie, she discovered the phenomenon of artificial radioactivity (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1935) and obtained artificial radioactive isotopes. Continuing their research on artificial radioactivity, the Joliot-Curies discovered in 1934 a new kind of radioactive transformation — positron radioactivity. Earlier (1931), having repeated the well-known Bothe — Becker experiments and investigated the beryllium radiation produced when beryllium is bombarded with fast alpha particles, Irène and Frédéric concluded that it was not electromagnetic but rather corpuscular in nature. The results of these experiments and their correct interpretation led J. Chadwick in 1932 to the discovery of the neutron.
In 1938, studying the radioactivity of uranium induced by neutrons, she established together with P. Savitch that one of the products of the nuclear reaction is not a transuranic element, as was supposed at the time, but lanthanum, an element from the middle of Mendeleev's periodic table. Checking I. Curie's experiments soon afterwards, the German physicists O. Hahn and F. Strassmann discovered the fission of uranium nuclei under the action of neutrons. Irène Curie was a well-known public figure. During the fascist occupation of France (1940—44) she took an active part in the struggle to free her homeland from fascism. After the war she campaigned persistently against the use of atomic energy for military purposes.
She was a member of the World Peace Council. An honorary member of a number of academies of sciences and scientific societies, and a foreign corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1947). The C. Matteucci (1932) and A. Lavoisier (1954) Medals.