Voting Station

Marguerite Perey

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Scientist

The Resume

    (October 19, 1909-May 13, 1975)
    Born in Villemomble, France
    Assistant to Marie Curie (1929-34)
    Discovered the element francium (1939)

Why she might be annoying:

    Even though she had already discovered an element, when she received a grant to attend the Sorbonne to earn a doctorate, the University demanded that she first take the courses required for a B.S. degree. (She had previously earned a diploma from the Paris Technical School of Women's Education, which qualified her to work in a laboratory, but was not considered an academic degree.)
    She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry five times without winning.
    Due to its rarity (it is estimated that only about an ounce of it exists in the earth's crust) and instability (its longest lived isotope has a half-life of 22 minutes), francium has no practical applications.

Why she might not be annoying:

    Appropriately, she was born in the Parisian suburb where the Curie Institute was founded.
    Francium was the last naturally-occurring element to be discovered.
    She was named an officer of the Legion of Honor (1960).
    She was the first woman elected to the French Academy of Science (1962).

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 106 Votes: 51.89% Annoying