Tag Archives: the Nobel Prize
They were the first: Nobel Prize winners Marie Curie and Irène Joliot-Curie
T. V. Danylova1*, S. V. Komisarenko2
1Institute for Social and Political Psychology,
National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv;
*e-mail: danilova_tv@ukr.net,
2Palladin Institute of Biochemistry, National Academy
of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv;
Received: 26 December 2025; Revised: 26 February 2026;
Accepted: 03 April 2026; Available on-line: 21 April 2026
This article aims to highlight the major milestones in the lives of two great women scientists who became icons for many women and girls empowering them in their search for a life path. A double Nobel Prize winner in two different fields (1903 and 1911) Marie Curie discovered new elements polonium and radium, isolated radium and studied its nature and compounds. Her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie, a 1935 Nobel Prize winner, synthesized new radioactive elements. Their scientific and civic activities expanded and deepened understanding of the physical world, made breakthroughs in medicine, and changed society’s ideas on the role of women.
Born in Ukraine: Nobel prize Winners Ilya Mechnikov, Selman Waksman, Roald Hoffmann AND Georges Charpak
T. V. Danylova1, S. V. Komisarenko2
1National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv;
e-mail: danilova_tv@ukr.net;
2Palladin Institute of Biochemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv;
e-mail: svk@biochem.kiev.ua
Received: 18 February 2019; Accepted: 14 March 2019
Our country has not yet gained recognition from a Nobel Committee, however, some Nobel Prize winners were born in the territory, which belongs to present-day Ukraine. Among them are the father of innate cellular immunity Ilya Mechnikov; the famous microbiologist and biochemist Selman Waksman, whose studies had led to the discovery of streptomycin; the outstanding chemist, poet and playwright Roald Hoffmann, and the prominent physicist Georges Charpak who invented and developed particle detectors, in particular, the multiwire proportional chamber. This paper aims to outline briefly the main stages of their scientific activity.
Nobel Laureates of the early 20th century E. Behring, I. Mechnikov, P. Ehrlich, C. Richet, J. Bordet, K. Landsteiner and their contribution to the development of molecular immunology
V. M. Danilova, R. P. Vynogradova, S. V. Komisarenko
Palladin Institute of Biochemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv;
e-mail: valdan@biochem.kiev.ua
The discoveries of immunologists have often been recognized as the most significant in the field of medicine and physiology, since the immune system is extremely vital for the organism, and the study of the principles of its functioning is of fundamental importance to the prevention (vaccination), diagnosis and therapy of many diseases. This article refers to the scientists of the early twentieth century, who received the most prestigious scientific award – the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and who built the groundwork for the development of immunology as a science. Thus, in 1901, E. von Behring received the first Nobel Prize “for his work on serum therapy, especially its application against diphtheria, by which he has opened a new road in the domain of medical science and thereby placed in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and deaths”; in 1908, I. Mechnikov and P. Ehrlich received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the creating of the cellular and humoral theory of immunity; in 1913 – C. Richet – “in recognition of his work on anaphylaxis”; in 1919 – J. Bordet – “for his discoveries relating to immunity (the role of complement, mechanisms of precipitation, agglutination…)”; in 1930 – K. Landsteiner – “for his discovery of human blood groups”. Their works spurred the development of modern molecular immunology – the science of the organization and function of the immune system, as an effective defense barrier in the living organism, which recognize and distinguish between “self” and “non-self”.