Which person was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?

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

Curie received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics, sharing it with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for research into radiation phenomena. She became the first woman Nobel laureate at a time when women faced major barriers in European universities and scientific institutions.

She later won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering the elements polonium and radium, isolating radium, and studying its compounds. Curie was therefore also the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, and remains the only person awarded Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields.

Her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie later won the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The family’s scientific legacy is closely connected with radioactivity, a term that Marie Curie helped establish and develop scientifically.