“Maria Skłodowska Curie in Italy: three journeys, one passion”: the exhibition
Open air exhibition “Maria Skłodowska Curie in Italy: three journeys, one passion” at the Warsaw University of Technology
The exhibition can be viewed until the end of June on the square by the fountain in front of the WUT Faculty of Physics building. It presents the three journeys our Nobel laureate made to the Apennine Peninsula. The exhibition brings together two anniversaries: the 100th anniversary of Maria Skłodowska‑Curie being awarded an honorary doctorate by the Warsaw University of Technology and the 200th anniversary of our university.
The exhibition consists of 12 bilingual panels (in Polish and English) and invites visitors to follow Maria Skłodowska‑Curie’s footsteps across Italy. Liguria, Tuscany, Lazio and Capri are just some of the places the scientist visited during her three journeys to the Apennine Peninsula in 1911, 1918 and 1931. Thanks to archival research carried out in recent years in Italy and France, it has been possible to reconstruct the details of these visits and to obtain previously unpublished materials. The exhibition presents Maria Skłodowska‑Curie not only as an outstanding chemist and double Nobel laureate, but also as a mother, a friend and an active participant in international scientific life. The exhibition has previously been shown in Warsaw, Kraków, Genoa, Pisa and Rome.
The project has been carried out through the cooperation of the Committee on Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Polish Academy of Sciences Scientific Centre in Rome, the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Warsaw, the Polish Chemical Society and the Maria Skłodowska‑Curie Museum in Warsaw. The exhibition was co‑funded by the Polish Academy of Sciences under the “Open Science” programme. The project was first presented in 2025.
The exhibition marks the beginning of an information series by the Warsaw University of Technology Museum dedicated to Maria Skłodowska‑Curie – the eminent scientist who, on 21 November 1926, was awarded an honorary doctorate, the highest academic distinction conferred by universities.
“The opening of the exhibition coincided with the ceremony of awarding the title of doctor honoris causa to the distinguished physicist Professor Paolo Giubellino,” notes Krzysztof Czajka‑Kalinowski, Director of the WUT Museum. “In his address, Professor Giubellino highlighted the importance of Maria Skłodowska‑Curie and her fundamental contribution to the development of the field of research in which he himself works. The fact that the professor comes from Italy shows how historical events can intertwine with our present reality, and how the 200‑year tradition of WUT forms the foundation of its dynamic development.”
It is also of note that the nomination for Maria Skłodowska‑Curie was submitted by the then Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry and later Rector of the Warsaw University of Technology, Professor Józef Zawadzki, who himself also received an honorary doctorate from our university – in 1947.
