Presentation: The Centennial of Mme Curie’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry: What Her Public Memory Can Tell Us About the Changing Status of Women in Science
by Dr. Pnina G. Abir-Am, Resident Scholar, Women’s Studies Research Center, Brandeis University.
Bradbury Science Museum, Los Alamos
October 12th, 2011
Talks at 3pm and 5pm.
This talk is open to the public.
Dr. Pnina explores how the public memory of Mme Curie and her discoveries was formed. She does so through various anniversaries, especially the globalization of the centennial of the discovery of radium and radioactivity after the end of the Cold War, in 1998. She also explores how Mme Curie’s public memory as discoverer of new elements, collaborative spouse, twice Nobel laureate, (shared award in physics in 1903; sole award in chemistry in 1911) widowed single mother of a would be Nobel Laureate daughter, laboratory director, head of a research school, member of an elite network of influential scientists, and international celebrity, reflects changing societal opportunities for women in science.
Dr. Pnina G. Abir-Am is a historian of 20th Century science and a member of the History of Science Society.