Following the sudden death of her husband Pierre, Marie Curie was asked by the Sorbonne to assume the physics chair which he had previously held.
On her first day, she arrived to find the classroom crowded with celebrities, politicians, a stenographer (to record what promised to be her historic opening remarks), and most of the faculty.
Welcomed with a thunderous ovation, Curie waited for the noise to subside. Then, foregoing formalities and introductory remarks, she simply began her lecture -- at the very point where her husband had left off several months before.
["She has a sparky intelligence," Einstein once said of his colleague, "but is not attractive enough to be a danger to anybody."]
Sources
American Institute of Physics Handbook
