Marie Curie became a widow in 1906 at 38, raising two young daughters while continuing her scientific career. She succeeded Pierre Curie at the Sorbonne, pursued groundbreaking research into radioactivity and produced pure radium. In 1911, she won her second Nobel Prize, becoming the first person to receive two Nobel Prizes and the only individual awarded them in two scientific fields. Her daughter Irène later became a Nobel laureate herself.