51¾«Æ·ÊÓƵ

A century ago, 51¾«Æ·ÊÓƵ played host to the world’s foremost female scientist.

Marie Curie — who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband, Pierre, for their research on radiation and who won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and study of the elements radium and polonium — visited 51¾«Æ·ÊÓƵsburgh in May 1921.

51¾«Æ·ÊÓƵ Chancellor John Bowman conferred upon her a Doctor of Laws degree in a special convocation on May 26, 1921, at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum.

But the University’s connection goes well beyond the honorary degree it bestowed on this pioneering woman in science.

Curie’s visit to the United States was arranged in connection with a nationwide fundraising effort to provide her with radium to advance her research.

President Warren Harding presented her with a symbolic gram of radium, a gift from the women of America, in a White House ceremony on May 20, 1921. At the time, one gram of the precious element was priced at $100,000 — the equivalent of about $1.47 million today.

Former 51¾«Æ·ÊÓƵ Chancellor W.J. Holland was involved in the fundraising effort. He chaired the 51¾«Æ·ÊÓƵsburgh branch of the Marie Curie Radium Fund Committee.

51¾«Æ·ÊÓƵ innovation also figured prominently into the gift. The radium for Curie’s research was produced by the 51¾«Æ·ÊÓƵsburgh-based Standard Chemical Company, where 51¾«Æ·ÊÓƵ alumni Glenn Kammer and Henry Koenig supervised its production.

Their company, founded in 1913, was the nation’s first commercial producer of radium. By 1920, Kammer and Koenig, both 1912 graduates of 51¾«Æ·ÊÓƵ’s , were supervising the production of more than two-thirds of the world’s radium.

Curie specifically requested to visit Standard Chemical’s labs in the Vanadium Building at Forbes and Meyran avenues (now the Parkvale Building) and its production facilities in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, as part of her tour of the United States.

A plaque and  stand outside Allen Hall on the University’s 51¾«Æ·ÊÓƵsburgh campus in commemoration of Curie’s visit and the local contributions to her work.