October 19, 1909, Villemomble (France) - May 13, 1975, Louveciennes (France)
He always wanted to become a doctor, but after the early death of his father, the family did not have the resources to do so. With a lot of effort and her mother's opposition, she obtained 1929 the title of chemical laboratory technician at the Ecole d'Enseignement Technique Féminine (Women's Technical School).
That same year, she began working at the Institut du Radium in Paris (France), obtaining a three-month work experience contract as a laboratory technician. When she arrived on her first day, she met an amiable lady dressed in working clothes, whom she took to be the laboratory secretary. He soon realized that this very simple lady was Marie Curie, a professor at the Sorbonne, winner of two Nobel prizes, and founder of the Radium Institute.
Marguerite's great good fortune was that she had found a person who placed more importance on talent than on formalities, and who quickly detected Marguerite's intellectual capacity and ability to work in the laboratory, even though she did not have a university degree. He made her his laboratory assistant and took it upon himself to train her. They worked together for five years, until Marie's death.
In 1934, she was appointed radiochemist at the Institute, working under the new director of the Institute, André Debierne, and Irène Joliot-Curie, who were interested in the study of actinium.
On 7 January 1939, he observed an anomalous radiation in actinium, which he attributed to a new element, element 87, which had the properties of an alkali and which he initially called Actinium K.
He had just discovered the last remaining natural element to complete Mendeleev's periodic table of 92 elements. In the 1940s, Coryell and Segrè artificially obtained promethium (61) and astatine (85).
In his early thirties, he had a result on par with that of his mentor, Marie Curie.
The members of the institute thought he should present it as his doctoral thesis, just as Marie had done with radium. The problem was not only that Marguerite did not have a university degree, she did not even have a baccalaureate. The Institute decided to take her away from all laboratory work and got her a scholarship so she could study at the Sorbonne. She attended the preparatory medical school to qualify for a higher degree and then took chemistry, biology, and physiology modules that the university considered equivalent to a bachelor's degree (Marguerite's case was exceptional in every way).
Finally, on 21 March 1946, at the age of 36, Marguerite presented her thesis on ‘L'élément 87: Actinium K’. Her last sentence stated the discoverer's privilege: ‘The name Francium, Fa, is proposed for site 87’ (today the symbol for francium is Fr). As Irène Joliot-Curie said, when Marguerite finished defending her thesis, ‘Today my mother would have been happy’.
In 1946, she was appointed research professor at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) in France.
From 1958 until her death, she worked as an administrator at the Institute for Nuclear Research in Strasbourg, alternating this occupation with her work as a professor of nuclear chemistry at the University of Strasbourg.
Most of her career was devoted to research into the physical, chemical, and biological properties of different radioactive substances, both natural and artificial.
Her work and contribution to science were rewarded with the Grand Prix Scientifique de Paris (1960), and she was twice awarded the prestigious Lavossier silver medal by the French Academy of Sciences (1950 and 1960), and in 1964 she was awarded the prestigious Lavossier silver medal by the Société Chimique de France.
She did not win a Nobel Prize, but in 1962 she became the first woman to be elected a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, something not even Marie Curie achieved.
She died in Louveciennes, France, on 13 May 1975, aged 65, of cancer caused by handling radioactive substances.
