The Senate of the University of Poznań elected Maria Skłodowska-Curie as the university's first honorary doctor in 1922. However, the Nobel Prize winner never came to Poznań to receive the award. University of Adam Mickiewicz, 100 years after the award of the title, handed over the honorary diploma to the granddaughter of the scientist, Prof. Helene Langevin-Joliot. The ceremony was held in the Lubrański Hall at Collegium Minus.
The Rector of the Adam Mickiewicz University, Prof. Bogumiła Kaniewska reminded that the title of doctor honoris causa is the highest academic dignity and is awarded to people who have contributed particularly to the development of science, culture and social life. The granddaughter of the Nobel Prize winner Prof. Hélene Langevin-Joliot said after receiving her diploma that in her opinion Marie Skłodowska-Curie would emphasize today how important the role of knowledge is in serving the freedom and emancipation of both women and men.
The representatives of the Kulczyk Foundation were invited to the ceremony. After presenting the doctorate honoris causa, we handed over Prof. Hélène Langevin-Joliot our congratulations. There was also a moment to talk about the Foundation's activities and plans to renovate Maria Skłodowska-Curie's house near Paris.
Maria Skłodowska-Curie is the only woman to have been awarded the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields. In 1903, together with her husband Pierre Curie and physicist Henri Becquerel, she received the Nobel Prize in Physics for her research on radioactivity. In 1911, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of new elements: polonium and radium.
The celebration of the 100th anniversary of awarding the Nobel laureate with an honorary doctorate of the University of Poznań was accompanied by the exhibition "Maria Skłodowska-Curie. In love with science" and a scientific symposium with the participation of honorary guests. Among them were e.g., prof. Hélène Langevin-Joliot, Hanna Karczewska – great-granddaughter of Helena Skłodowska-Szalay, sister of Maria, Piotr Chrząstowski PhD - great-grandson of Józef Skłodowski, Maria's brother, and Renaud Huynh - director of the Curie Museum in Paris.
