Irene Joliet-Curie was born on September 12, 1897. She was the first of two daughters born to her esteemed parents Marie and Pierre Curie. Her mother, Marie Curie, valued education and her highly intelligent daughter Irene began school at age six. The school near their home was not considered challenging enough, so she moved to a school on the rue Cassini. At age ten, her parents pulled Irene and nine other mathematically gifted children out of their schools and began a difficult homeschooling program. Irene finished her high school education at College of Sevigne. She entered the Sorbonne in October,1914 to prepare for a baccalaureate in mathematics and physics. Her education was interrupted by World War I where she helped her mother with the fleet of mobile x-ray facilities. In 1918, Irene, as her mother's assistant, joined the staff of the Curie Institute. Meanwhile, she was also completing her doctoral dissertation on the alpha rays of polonium which she successfully defended in March, 1925.
Joliet was born the sixth child of Henri Joliet and Emilie Roederer. When he was ten, he entered a boarding school in southern Paris. He later transferred to the Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielle of the City of Paris. Though enrolled at an engineering school, he studied basic science. He became an expert experimenter and graduated first in his class. He received his doctorate in 1930 after working under the direction of Marie Curie, Irene's mother. He also met Irene, since she was assisting her mother at the Institut. They married the following year and adopted the name Joliet-Curie. .
The Curies were awarded their Nobel Prize in a time of extraordinary developments in atomic physics. In the previous few decades, much had been learned about the atom and scientists were frantically trying to restore a sense of order to the atom, which was not at all what many had imagined. Irene and Frederic were already busy in the field, having confirmed the discovery of the positron in 1932.
