Pierre Curie

A physicist who investigated magnetism, piezoelectricity and radioactivity. He built delicate balances, electrometers and piezoelectric crystals; this work on instruments helped make weak electrical effects measurable. With Marie Curie, he investigated radioactive substances under difficult laboratory conditions. The Curie ionization-current measurement illustrates how such instrumentation can turn a small signal into a quantitative comparison.^[ref]

Pierre Curie (1859–1906) was a French physicist best known for his work on radioactivity, a term that he coined. He was born in Paris and developed a strong interest in science from an early age. Along with his wife, Marie Curie, he conducted groundbreaking research on radioactive elements, particularly on polonium and radium.