Marguerite Perey
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Marguerite Catherine Perey (19 October 1909 – 13 May 1975) was a French
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
and a student of
Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...
. In 1939, Perey discovered the element
francium Francium is a chemical element with the symbol Fr and atomic number 87. It is extremely radioactive; its most stable isotope, francium-223 (originally called actinium K after the natural decay chain it appears in), has a half-life of only 22&nb ...
by purifying samples of
lanthanum Lanthanum is a chemical element with the symbol La and atomic number 57. It is a soft, ductile, silvery-white metal that tarnishes slowly when exposed to air. It is the eponym of the lanthanide series, a group of 15 similar elements between lantha ...
that contained
actinium Actinium is a chemical element with the symbol Ac and atomic number 89. It was first isolated by Friedrich Oskar Giesel in 1902, who gave it the name ''emanium''; the element got its name by being wrongly identified with a substance And ...
. In 1962, she was the first woman to be elected to the French
Académie des Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...
, an honor denied to her mentor Curie. Perey died of cancer in 1975.


Early life

Perey was born in 1909 in
Villemomble Villemomble () is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Heraldry Transport Villemomble is served by Le Raincy – Villemomble – Montfermeil station on Paris RER line E. Demogr ...
, France, just outside
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
where the Curie's Radium Institute was located. Although she hoped to study medicine, the death of her father left the family in financial difficulties. Perey earned a chemistry diploma from Paris' Technical School of Women's Education in 1929; while not a "degree", it did qualify her to work as a chemistry technician. In 1929 at the age of 19, Perey interviewed for a role as a personal assistant (technician) to Marie Curie at Curie's Radium Institute in Paris, France, and was hired. Marie Curie took on a mentoring role to Perey, taking her on as her personal assistant.


Early career

Under Marie Curie's guidance at the Radium Institute, Perey learned how to isolate and purify radioactive elements, focusing on the chemical element actinium (discovered in Curie's laboratory in 1899 by chemist
André-Louis Debierne André-Louis Debierne (; 14 July 1874 – 31 August 1949) was a French chemist. He is often considered the discoverer of the element actinium, though H. W. Kirby disputes this and awards credit instead to German chemist Friedrich Oskar Giesel. De ...
). Perey spent a decade sifting out
actinium Actinium is a chemical element with the symbol Ac and atomic number 89. It was first isolated by Friedrich Oskar Giesel in 1902, who gave it the name ''emanium''; the element got its name by being wrongly identified with a substance And ...
from all the other components of uranium ore, which Curie then used in her study of the decay of the element. Marie Curie died of
aplastic anemia Aplastic anemia is a cancer in which the body fails to make blood cells in sufficient numbers. Blood cells are produced in the bone marrow by stem cells that reside there. Aplastic anemia causes a deficiency of all blood cell types: red blood ...
only five years after Perey began working with her, but Perey and Debierne continued their research on actinium and Perey was promoted to radiochemist.


Discovery of francium

In 1935, Perey read a paper by American scientists claiming to have discovered a type of radiation called beta particles being emitted by actinium and was skeptical because the reported energy of the beta particles didn't seem to match actinium. She decided to investigate for herself, theorizing that actinium was decaying into another element (a daughter atom) and that the observed beta particles were actually coming from that daughter atom. She confirmed this by isolating extremely pure actinium and studying its radiation very quickly; she detected a small amount of alpha radiation, a type of radiation that involves the loss of protons and therefore changes an atom's identity. Loss of an alpha particle (consisting of 2 protons and 2 neutrons) would turn actinium (element 89, with 89 protons) into the theorized but never-before-seen element 87. Perey announced the discovery of the never-before-seen element 87 as a note in the ''Comptes Rendus'' presented at the
Académie des Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...
by
Jean Baptiste Perrin Jean Baptiste Perrin (30 September 1870 – 17 April 1942) was a French physicist who, in his studies of the Brownian motion of minute particles suspended in liquids ( sedimentation equilibrium), verified Albert Einstein’s explanation of this ...
on 9 January 1939 with the title "On an element 87, derived from actinium." Perey's discovery was announced by Perrin, not Perey herself, because she was only a laboratory assistant with no university degree. Perey named the element francium, after her home country, and it joined the other alkali metals in Group 1 of the periodic table of elements. Francium is the rarest element - only about 550g exists in the entire earth's crust - and it was the last element to be discovered in nature. (Five elements that were discovered synthetically were later found to exist in nature:
technetium Technetium is a chemical element with the symbol Tc and atomic number 43. It is the lightest element whose isotopes are all radioactive. All available technetium is produced as a synthetic element. Naturally occurring technetium is a spontaneous ...
,
promethium Promethium is a chemical element with the symbol Pm and atomic number 61. All of its isotopes are radioactive; it is extremely rare, with only about 500–600 grams naturally occurring in Earth's crust at any given time. Promethium is one of onl ...
,
astatine Astatine is a chemical element with the symbol At and atomic number 85. It is the rarest naturally occurring element in the Earth's crust, occurring only as the decay product of various heavier elements. All of astatine's isotopes are short-li ...
,
neptunium Neptunium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Np and atomic number 93. A radioactivity, radioactive actinide metal, neptunium is the first transuranic element. Its position in the periodic table just after uranium, named after ...
, and
plutonium Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibi ...
.)


Later career

Perey received a grant to study at Paris' Sorbonne, but because she didn't have a bachelor's degree, the Sorbonne required her to take courses and obtain the equivalent of a B.S. to fulfill their PhD program requirements before she could earn her doctorate. She graduated from the Sorbonne in 1946 with a Doctorate of Physics. After obtaining her PhD, Perey returned to the Radium Institute as a senior scientist and worked there until 1949. Perey was made the head of the department of nuclear chemistry at the
University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...
in 1949, where she developed the university's radiochemistry and nuclear chemistry program and continued her work on
francium Francium is a chemical element with the symbol Fr and atomic number 87. It is extremely radioactive; its most stable isotope, francium-223 (originally called actinium K after the natural decay chain it appears in), has a half-life of only 22&nb ...
. She founded a laboratory that in 1958 became the Laboratory of Nuclear Chemistry in the Center for Nuclear Research, for which she served as director. She also served as a member of the Atomic Weights Commission from 1950 to 1963. Because of her work with francium, Perey was nominated five times for a
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
, but she never received it. Ironically, Perey hoped that francium would help diagnose cancer, but in fact it itself was carcinogenic, and Perey developed bone cancer which eventually killed her. Perey died on 13 May 1975 (age 65). She is credited with championing better safety measures for scientists working with radiation.


Legacy

Perey's archives with materials dating from 1929 to 1975 were left at the University of Strasbourg. They include laboratory notebooks, course materials from her work as professor of nuclear chemistry, papers from her laboratory directorship, and publications. All documents are currently held at the ''Archives départementales du Bas-Rhin'' (Departmental archives of the
Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...
).


Publications

* "Sur un élément 87, dérivé de l'actinium," ''Comptes-rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences,'' 208: 97 (1939). * "Francium: élément 87," ''Bulletin de la Société chimique de France,'' 18: 779 (1951). * "On the Descendants of Actinium K: 87Ac223," ''Journal de Physique et le Radium,'' 17: 545 (1956).


Positions

* 1929–34: Personal assistant (preparateur) to
Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...
, Institut du Radium. * 1934–46: Radiochemist, Institut du Radium. * 1946–49: Maitre de Recherches, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut du Radium. * 1949: Professeur titulaire de la Chaire de Chimie Nucleaire, Universite de Strasbourg. * 1950–63: Member of the Atomic Weights Commission


Education

* Diplôme d'État de chimiste, École d'enseignement technique féminine, 1929 * Doctorat des Sciences, Sorbonne, 1946


Honors

Perey was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1962, making her the first woman elected to the Institut de France. Although a significant step, her election as a "corresponding member" rather than a full member came with limited privileges. *The French Academy of Science Wilde Prize (1950) *The French Academy of Science Le Conte Prize (1960) *The City of Paris Science Grand Prize (1960) *Officier of the
Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
(1960) * Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris (1960) * Elected correspondante of the
Académie des Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...
(Paris, 1962). First woman to be elected to the Académie since its founding in 1666. * Lavoisier Prize of the Académie des Sciences (1964) * Silver Medal of the Société Chimique de France (1964) * Commandeur of the
Ordre National du Mérite The Ordre national du Mérite (; en, National Order of Merit) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's esta ...
(1974)


See also

*
Timeline of women in science This is a timeline of women in science, spanning from ancient history up to the 21st century. While the timeline primarily focuses on women involved with natural sciences such as astronomy, biology, chemistry and physics, it also includes women f ...


References


Further reading

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Perey, Marguerite Catherine 1909 births 1975 deaths University of Paris alumni French physicists Discoverers of chemical elements Members of the French Academy of Sciences Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Deaths from cancer in France 20th-century French women scientists