Irene Curie was 6 years old when her parents each claimed a Nobel in physics and it didn’t take her long to take to chemistry and radiology. She served as a nurse radiographer in World War I and became a Doctor of Science in 1925, writing her thesis on the alpha rays of polonium (via Nobel Prize). The next year she would marry Frederic Joliot, and the two would collaborate on radioactivity and nuclear physics. In 1935, the pair would each receive a Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work on artificial radiation.

Irene would continue to build upon the work of her parents, contributing greatly to the realms of radiology and nuclear fission, and was integral to the development of nuclear physics within France and the world at large. While her mother receives credit for being the true breakthrough innovator for both radiology and women in science, and rightly so, Marie Curie‘s daughter was certainly no slouch and contributed greatly to the work begun by her parents — ensuring the Curies earned every one of those multiple Nobels.