Marie Curie Statue In Edinburgh, Scotland [Image via Moomusician/Shutterstock.com]
18. Marie Curie
Most Famous For Discovering/Inventing:Radium, Polonium, Radioactivity, & How It Could Treat Cancer
Marie Curie was a physicist and chemist who literally gave her life to do scientific research on radioactivity. Due to her amazing work during her life, she became the first woman to ever win the Nobel Prize. She is actually the first and only woman to win the Nobel Prize twice and the only woman to do it in two different sciences.
[Image via Newscientist]If you are looking for a great female role model, Curie is certainly one to look to. Marie actually was the one to discover radioactivity, to begin with. Then along with her husband, found the elements of Radium & Polonium. Marie also discovered that the rays from radioactivity could be used to treat cancerous tumors. The Curie family even chose not to patent this so that it could be used easily for as many people as possible.