Is this a Marie Curie reference?

Seems like it to me.

The context if the cartoon was to tell politicians about a classic scientific project and see if they claim it's wasteful spending... so in that context, yes this is probably a reference to Marie Curie.

The "stir dirt" reference prompted me to look into Marie Curie. Her research involved uranium minerals, e.g. torbernite and uraninite. Also, she was Polish.