Frédéric Joliot-Curie Frédéric Joliot-Curie Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie (; 19 March 1900 – 14 August 1958), born "Jean Frédéric Joliot", was a French physicist, husband of Irène Joliot-Curie with whom he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Born in Paris, France, he was a graduate of the École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris. In 1925 he became an assistant to Marie Curie, at the Radium Institute. He fell in love with her daughter Irène Curie, and soon after their marriage in 1926 they both changed their surnames to Joliot-Curie. At the insistence of Marie,
Nobel Prize stated that the Nobel Prizes in Physics should be given "to the person who shall have made the most important 'discovery' or 'invention' within the field of physics". Nobel did not emphasise discoveries, but they have historically been held in higher respect by the Nobel Prize Committee than inventions: 77% of the Physics Prizes have been given to discoveries, compared with only 23% to inventions. Christoph Bartneck and Matthias Rauterberg, in papers published in "Nature" and "Technoetic Arts", have argued this emphasis on discoveries has moved the Nobel Prize away from its original intention of rewarding the greatest contribution to