RE-READING CURIE

As the best-known woman scientist of the twentieth century and popular scientific icon, Marie Sklodowska Curie has long been subject to scholarly and media attention. Under the spell of Eve Curie’s best-selling biography (Madame Curie, Doubleday, 1937), she was mostly portrayed as a pure, disinterested scientist, but over the last two decades a different image has taken shape.

Focusing on the material and gender culture of radioactivity and the industrial relations of the new science, historians have portrayed Curie not just as a prominent radioactivist, but also as an entrepreneurial scientist and as a researcher who pioneered the joint management of domestic and professional life. In this talk I will discuss recent work and suggest new readings of Curie’s life and work.

BIO XAVIER ROQUÉ:

Xavier Roqué is Senior Lecturer in History of Science at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), where he also directed its Center for the History of Science between 2000 and 2010. He coordinates the Master in History of Science. Science, History and Society (UAB-UB-UPF). Trained as a physicist, his research deals with the history of the modern physical sciences, the material culture of science, and the relations between science and industry.

Together with Soraya Boudia, he edited Science, medicine, and industry: the Curie and Joliot-Curie laboratories, a special issue of History and Technology, 13, no. 4 (1997), and has edited Curie’s biographical texts both in Catalan (Obrador Edèndum, 2009) and in Spanish (Publicacions de la UAB, 2011). He is also the editor, together with Néstor Herran, of La física en la dictadura. Físicos, cultura y poder en España, 1939–1975 (Bellaterra, 2012). A revised edition of his translation of Einstein’s popular book on relativity is due to appear this year.

Day: Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Time: 12 pm
Venue: Sala d'actes "Carles Miravitlles" ICMAB

Downlad the programme of the day in English and in Catalan.