Marie Curie

Her 1903 prize, shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, recognized pioneering research into radioactivity; her 1911 prize honored the discovery of radium and polonium. Notably, she identified two new elements from pitchblende ore, a process that required processing over 8 tons of ore to isolate just 0.1 grams of radium chloride. Her work directly led to the development of X-ray machines used in World War I field hospitals.