Only 64 women have won the Nobel Prize in 122 years. Here's who received the first award.

The highly prestigious Nobel Prize is awarded in December each year, a tradition that dates back to 1901. 

But while 965 individuals and 27 organizations have won the coveted prize, only 64 women have ever received a Nobel Prize. 

Four women won in 2023. Anne L’Huillier received the physics prize for experimental methods in the study of electron dynamics in matter. Katalin Karikó took home the Physiology and Medicine award for discoveries that enabled effective COVID-19 vaccines. Claudia Goldin won the Economic Sciences award for her research in women’s labor market outcomes. Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work as an Iranian human rights activist.

Who was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize?

Marie Curie was the first woman to earn a Nobel Prize in 1903 when she won in physics for her research on radioactivity.

She won another Nobel in 1911, this time in chemistry, for her discovery of radium and polonium. Curie is the only person to have won two different science categories. 

How many Nobel Prizes are there?Categories, most decorated winners and other fast facts

What did Marie Curie discover?

We can thank Curie and her work with radioactive elements for modern-day cancer treatment and X-ray capabilities. 

Much of Curie’s research was done alongside her husband, Pierre Curie, until his untimely death in a street accident. The Curies are most well known for their work on radioactivity and the discovery of two new elements – polonium and radium. 

She also created small, portable X-ray units to diagnose injuries near the battlefield in WWI. 

How did Marie Curie die?

Both Curie and her husband felt sick and physically exhausted from their research, working with “raw and inflamed hands because they were continually handling highly radioactive material.” The Curies' sicknesses were early signs of radiation sickness, according to the UK-based Marie Curie charity. 

Curie died on July 4, 1934, from aplastic anemia, a condition caused by years of radiation exposure.

Marie Curie quotes

Marie Curie was known for her “indomitable spirit.” After her husband died, she kept working and succeeded him as a professor at Sorbonne University, a public research university in France. 

Referring to Alfred Nobel, the creator of the annual awards, she said, "I am one of those who think like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries." Here are more notable quotes from the famed scientist from her namesake charity: 

• "You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful." 
• "Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood." 
• "Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained." 
• "Have no fear of perfection; you'll never reach it." 
• "I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale."
• "Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas."
• "Humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit."

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