Marguerite Perey. Historical portrait of the French nuclear chemist Marguerite Perey (1909-75), in 1962. Perey joined Marie Curie's staff at the Radium Institute, Paris, France, in 1929. As a technician investigating radioactive decay, she discovered a chemical element she named francium, a discovery that had eluded many other researchers. Francium is very rare and is now made artificially by atomic bombardment. In 1962, Perey became the first woman member of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of France.