What medal did Marie and Pierre Curie receive together in 1904?

Marie and Pierre Curie received the Matteucci Medal together in 1904.

The Matteucci Medal is an Italian physics award named for Carlo Matteucci, a 19th-century physicist from Forlì. It honors important contributions to fundamental physics and was established through an Italian royal decree in 1870 after Matteucci’s donation.

The Curies received the medal in 1904, shortly after sharing the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Henri Becquerel. Their recognition reflected their pioneering investigations of radioactivity, including measurements of radioactive emissions and research into radium and polonium.

The award is easy to confuse with the Davy Medal, which Marie and Pierre also received together in 1903, and with the Nobel Prize. The Matteucci Medal, however, is the specific 1904 honor listed for both Curies. Other notable recipients have included Guglielmo Marconi, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Ernest Rutherford.