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Here is the link to the Nobel prize: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/summary/

The distribution of the prize is interesting: - 1/2 went to Becquerel (who's that?) - 1/4 went to Pierre Curie - 1/4 went to Marie Curie

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He was actually the person that discovered radioactivity. He did so when studying phosphorescence, and discovered that uranium salts (that are phosphorescent too), also exposed a photographic plate even when they not had been exposed to light, and even through black paper. You can clearly argue about the share of the price, and he was also clearly doing the discovery by luck.

The Curies, and especially Marie Curie was the ones that sorted out the nature of radioactivity and discovered two new elements in the process, but the discovery of radioactivity itself was quite important, so that he received the Nobel prize was not really undeserved.

He worked with the Curies on their research into radioactivity and is the namesake for the becquerel, a unit of radioactivity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Becquerel. (Other units happen to be “rutherfords” and “curies”.)

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