An exhibition documenting the life and academic achievements of Maria Sklodowska-Curie is on at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva.

The show consists of twenty display boards presenting all periods in the Polish scientist’s professional and private life, her childhood and youth in Poland, her studies in Paris, life with Pierre Curie and her historic scientific discoveries.

The exhibition shows Sklodowska-Curie not only as a brilliant scientist, but also an exceptional woman of great heart, character and organizational talents.

The event marks the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry given to Maria Sklodowska-Curie. This was the second Nobel Prize awarded to the Polish scientist, following the one in physics, which she received in 1903 together with her husband, Pierre Curie, and Henri Becquerel.

Sklodowska-Curie devised a method to isolate radium and study its properties, a discovery which later paved the way for cancer therapy.

During World War I, together with her daughter Irene, she fitted ambulances with portable X-ray equipment, driving vehicles to the front line. She died in 1934 of leukemia, which is supposed to have been caused by her high exposure to radiation.

Earlier this week, Maria Sklodowska-Curie was voted the greatest Polish woman of all time in a poll carried out by the Museum of the History of Poland in cooperation with the historical monthly Mówią Wieki.

Last year she was named ‘the most inspirational female scientist’ in an online poll by the prestigious British weekly ‘New Scientist’. She is also the only Pole in the list of twenty five most influential women of the twentieth century compiled by the Time magazine in 2010.

The exhibition in Geneva, which also marks the 20th  anniversary of Poland joining CERN as a member state,  is open till 24 March. (mk)