During the 1898 discoveries, Pierre Curie was Marie Curie’s husband.
Marie and Pierre Curie married on 26 July 1895 after meeting in Paris through scientific acquaintances. By 1898, their marriage was also a close research partnership. Pierre joined Marie’s investigation after she found that minerals such as pitchblende were more radioactive than their uranium content could explain.
Together, they announced polonium in July 1898, naming it for Marie’s native Poland. On 26 December 1898, they announced radium. Their work involved processing large quantities of pitchblende residues and separating extremely small amounts of radioactive material, a demanding combination of physics and chemistry.
The relationship matters because accounts sometimes present Marie’s discoveries as either entirely solitary or simply as Pierre’s work. Neither summary is fair: Marie initiated the systematic study of radioactivity, while Pierre brought crucial experimental expertise and collaborated closely with her. They later shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Henri Becquerel.