Which award was Marie Curie the first woman to win?

Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.

She received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics, sharing it with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel. The award recognized their research into radiation phenomena, building on Becquerel’s discovery of spontaneous radioactivity. Curie’s inclusion was significant because the original nomination reportedly focused on the two men until advocates pressed for recognition of her work.

Curie later won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering polonium and radium, isolating radium, and studying its properties. That made her the first person to win two Nobel Prizes and the only individual to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields.

A common mix-up is to answer “Nobel Prize in Chemistry,” since that was her solo Nobel and perhaps her best-known scientific recognition. Chronologically, however, her first Nobel was the Physics prize in 1903. Other awards, including the Davy Medal and the Matteucci Medal, followed or were awarded in the same period, but none makes her the first female Nobel laureate.