Maria Skłodowska-Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1867. She studied physics and mathematics at the Sorbonne in Paris, where she obtained degrees in both subjects within three years. She was the first candidate on an exam with 66 total candidates and one available position. Maria Skłodowska-Curie won two Nobel Prizes, one in 1903 for physics and another in 1911 for chemistry, for her research on radioactivity and the discovery of the elements polonium and radium.