01/28/2026
A Polish Genius Could Be Immortalized in Gold on the Eiffel Tower
History may soon be corrected in one of the most iconic places on Earth.
Paris has proposed adding Maria Skłodowska-Curie, the groundbreaking Polish scientist, to the Eiffel Tower — her name engraved in gold, alongside history’s greatest scientific minds.
When Gustave Eiffel built the tower, he envisioned it as a pantheon of science, inscribing 72 names of scientists and engineers. But there was one glaring omission: not a single woman.
Now, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has unveiled a list of 72 pioneering women whose contributions shaped science — with Skłodowska-Curie at its center. A pioneer of radioactivity, discoverer of polonium and radium, and the first person in history to win two Nobel Prizes (Physics and Chemistry), her legacy helped define modern science.
The proposal also includes Irène Joliot-Curie, Maria’s daughter and a Nobel laureate in chemistry — making it a rare mother-daughter scientific legacy.
If approved by France’s leading scientific academies, these women’s names will be engraved in the same gold lettering and font as the original names, permanently restoring balance to one of the world’s most famous monuments.
