Even now, nearly a century after her death, Marie Curie remains the only female scientist most people can name. She gained world renown at age thirty-six, when she received the first of her two Nobel Prizes. Two years later, suddenly a widow with two young children, she took over the laboratory where she had worked alongside her husband and also assumed his teaching position at the University of Paris, becoming the first female professor ever to lecture there. By her example and the extent of her fame, she drew aspiring physicists and chemists to her. Women arrived at the Radium Institute from eastern and western Europe, from Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, and as far away as Canada to work or study under Mme. Curie. The new book, The Elements of Marie Curie, combines her story—scientist, mother, mentor, war hero—with their stories of love, loss, and radioactivity. This session will discuss what Dava Sobel learned about Marie Curie’s legacy and the relevance to scientific research today.