Her senior thesis, titled Light interference and its application to wavelength measurement, earned her a 300 lei prize.

[4] After World War I, with support from Constantin Kirițescu, Mărăcineanu obtained a fellowship that allowed her to travel to Paris to do further studies.

[6] This work led her to believe that radioactive isotopes could be formed from atoms as a result of exposure to polonium's alpha rays, an observation which would lead to the Joliot-Curies' 1935 Nobel Prize.

[2] Mărăcineanu also investigated the possibility of sunlight inducing radioactivity with French astronomer Henri-Alexandre Deslandres, work which was contested by other researchers.

[6] A 1927 article from the Geraldton Guardian remarked: "Cheaper radium is foreshadowed in a communication to the French Academy of Sciences by a girl scientist, Mlle.

Maricaneanu[sic], who [...] by means of lengthy laboratory experiments, has been able to demonstrate that lead exposed for a long time to the sun recovers its radioactive properties.

The mechanism of this transformation [...] is a complete mystery but it is regarded of such tremendous importance to medical science that further close research work is to be pursued.

[3] Her request was granted, and on 21 December 1937 she was elected corresponding member of the Romanian Academy of Sciences, Physics section.