Tragedy and Progress

The money from their Nobel Prizes made life easier for Marie and Pierre. For the first time, they could afford a laboratory assistant. Pierre took the Chair of Physics at the Sorbornne. The university also agreed to provide a new, well equipped laboratory for the couple. In 1904, Marie and Pierre had a second daughter, Eve.And then their happy life together came to an end. In 1906, Pierre was killed when he was hit by a horse drawn carriage in the street.Although distraught over her loss, Marie accepted the offer from the Sorbonne to replace Pierre as the Chair of Physics.Again, she was breaking the mold she had been first woman to win a Nobel Prize, now she was the first female professor at the University of Paris.