Antoine Henri Becquerel ( 15 December 1852 -- 25 August 1908 ) was a French physicist . He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 together with Marie Curie and Pierre Curie , for his discovery of radioactivity in 1898 . Antoine Henri Becquerel ( 15 December 1852 -- 25 August 1908 ) was a French physicist , Nobel laureate , and the discoverer of radioactivity along with Marie Curie and Pierre Curie , for which all three won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics .