If I could meet a historical figure, it would be Marie Curie. Her name at birth and as a child was Maria Skłodowska. She was the youngest of five children of poor schoolteachers and had a passion for learning and knowledge. While staying with her sister in Paris in 1891, she studied physics and mathematics.

Not only did she win half of a Nobel prize in physics in 1903 when women were barely allowed out of the house, but she also won an entire Nobel prize on her own for her work in chemistry. She is best remembered for discovering radium and polonium.