NAME: Marie Curie

BORN/DIED:7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934

Job: Chemist, Physicist

KEY FACTS: Marie Curie grew up in Poland and did well at school. Marie wanted to go to university and study to become a scientist but it was expensive and at the time, university was thought of as mainly for men. Eventually Marie earned her degree in Physics from a university in France. Marie did lots of experiments and discovered two new elements for the periodic table! She named them Polonium (after her hometown of Poland) and Radium (because it gave off such strong rays).

ACHIEVEMENTS: In 1903 Marie was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on radiation. She was the first woman to ever get this award. In 1911 she was awarded a second Nobel Peace Prize for her discovery of two new elements.

NAME: Brian Cox

BORN: 3rd March 1968

Job: Physicist, TV presenter

KEY FACTS: Cox had a happy childhood growing up in Oldham, England. He studied physics at the University of Manchester and had a brief career as a keyboard player in a rock band. He went on to gain a PhD in Physics during which he worked on experiments at the Large Hadron Collider. He has written many books about physics and presented science programmes for the BBC including ‘Wonders of the Universe’ and ‘Stargazing Live’.

ACHIEVEMENTS: Cox has been recognised with many awards for his efforts to publicise science. He was awarded an OBE by the Queen in 2010. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016.

By Duncan.Hull – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54362393

NAME: Nicolaus Copernicus (Polish)

BORN/DIED: 19th Feb 1473 – 24th May 1543

JOB: Astronomer, Mathematician

KEY FACTS: Nicolaus Copernicus was born in what is now Northern Poland. When his father died, his uncle ensured that he got a good education which included developing a good understanding of mathematical astronomy.

Copernicus developed a fascination for astronomy and is famous for his idea of a heliocentric solar system. This is a system in which the planets orbit the sun. He wrote a book about this theory in which he correctly positioned all the planets known at the time, explained that the Earth rotated on its axis and explained how the seasons occurred.

ACHIEVEMENTS: Copernicus wrote the book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium which is regarded as one of the most important books in astronomy. His idea of a heliocentric solar system helped to develop peoples understanding of space and influenced future astronomers to develop his ideas further.

NAME: Alexander Graham Bell

BORN/DIED: 3rd March 1847 – 2nd August 1922

JOB: Scientist, inventor and engineer

KEY FACTS: Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. From a young age he displayed a natural curiosity about the world. After leaving school he became interested in speech and elocution (the skill of clear and expressive speech). This inspired a fascination with sound. Bells grandfather, father and brother were also associated with elocution while his mother and wife were deaf.

Bells research into sound led to him experimenting with hearing devices. This culminated in his creation of the telephone.

ACHIEVEMENTS: Invented the first telephone and was awarded the first US patent for it.

NAME: Patricia Bath

BORN: November 4, 1942

Jobs: Doctor, Inventor

KEY FACTS: Patricia Bath was raised in New York and was always interested in science. She qualified with a medical degree and then trained in ophthalmology, becoming the first female member of staff at UCLA’s ophthalmology department. She discovered that African Americans were twice as likely to suffer from blindness than other patients. This inspired her to invent the ‘Laserphaco Probe’ in 1986 which improved treatment for cataract patients.

ACHIEVEMENTS: She was the first African American woman to train in ophthalmology (medical and surgical eye problems). She was the first African-American female doctor to receive a medical patent. This was in 1986 for her invention for cataract treatment.