2025 For Future Reference Lecture: Dava Sobel

Marie Curie was a revolutionary of science in her lifetime, discovering polonium and radium and winning two Nobel Prizes. But did you know she mentored scores of young women who went on to have just as inspirational lives?

New York Times bestselling author Dava Sobel has dedicated her career to unearthing stories of scientific discovery – demystifying technical language and bringing women who were previously background characters to the forefront.

In the lead-up to International Women’s Day, Dava will be joining us for the 2025 For Future Reference lecture, endowed by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, to reflect on some of Marie Curie’s and her contemporaries lesser-known contributions to science.

There will be an opportunity to view rare books acquired through the Library’s Women Writers Fund initiative prior to the event.

This event will be Auslan interpreted and livestreamed.

Doors will open from 7pm. Drinks will be available to purchase on the night.

Copies of Dava’s books will be able to purchase from Readings booksellers at the event.

Book your tickets now.

A Woman’s Word (About Science)

Dava Sobel

Marie Curie, the only woman scientist most people can name, was also a gifted science communicator. Her books and journal articles are models of clear expository writing – influenced, perhaps, by the novelists and poets she read throughout her life. It fell to her to coin a word, ‘radioactive,’ to describe the two new elements that she discovered alongside her husband. As the only woman in the world in her time to head a research institute and hold a university professorship, Mme. Curie mentored scores of younger women who were drawn to her laboratory and whose lesser-known lives in science are likewise inspirational.

About Dava Sobel

Dava Sobel is the New York Times bestselling author of Longitude (Walker 1995, Bloomsbury 2005), Galileo’s Daughter (Walker 1999 and 2011), The Planets (Viking 2005, Penguin 2006), A More Perfect Heaven (Walker/Bloomsbury 2011 and 2012), And the Sun Stood Still (Bloomsbury 2016), The Glass Universe (Viking 2016, Penguin 2017) and The Elements of Marie Curie (Grove/Atlantic 2024). She has also co-authored six books, including Is Anyone Out There? with astronomer Frank Drake, and currently edits the “Meter” poetry column in Scientific American.

About the For Future Reference lecture series

Endowed by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, For Future Reference is an annual lecture series that shines a light on women’s influence on society via the mediums of literature, storytelling and authorship, both historically and into the future, with a focus on the future archives to be held in the State Collection.

This series is supported by the Library’s Women Writers Fund, which seeks to redress the historical gender imbalance in the State Collection by acquiring works that highlight work by under-represented women writers, artists and thinkers.