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Nobel Laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini dies at 103

Rita Levi-Montalcini

ANSA/Corbis

Yesterday the world lost one of its most extraordinary scientists when Rita Levi-Montalcini died at her home in Rome at the age of 103.

Tiny in stature but outsize in personality, Levi-Montalcini survived fascist Italy, where Jews were barred from working at universities, converting her bedroom into a makeshift lab to continue her studies on how nerves grow. Never losing her ruthless obsession with the topic, she went on to discover the molecule nerve growth factor, which won her a share of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Most of that work was carried out in the United States.

She spent her last decades back in Italy, where she became a national heroine and was appointed Senator for Life. In parliament she made sparks by blocking legislation that might have been unfriendly towards research. She also created a foundation to support scientific education for women in Africa and a Rome-based research institute called the European Brain Research Institute Rita Levi-Montalcini. That institute was opened to great fanfare in 2005, but inappropriate management meant that it did not develop into the vibrant legacy she had hoped to leave behind. It now struggles to keep going on a shoestring budget.

Her 100th birthday was marked with national celebrations (see this Nature profile feature, ‘One hundred years of Rita‘); today she lies in state at the Italian Senate. Her funeral will take place according to Jewish rites in her home city of Turin on 2 January 2013.

Comments

  1. Mario Enrique La Riva Málaga said:

    Good works Rita, please asap, Fly to other universes your wise and high soul to spread. Never rest in peace, Be for us, thank you so much.

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  2. venkatesh goura said:

    Great Work Madam, Need your blessings for the young researchers like me, where ever you are in other universes this world need your support in research madam.

  3. Matteo Marcantonio said:

    Rita Levi Montalcini represents the bright side of Italy. Thank you Rita!

  4. Carlo V. Bruschi said:

    Rita Levi-Montalcini represented, represents, and unfortunately will continue to represent, the bright but sad paradigm of Italian scientists, forced to leave their Country either because of bad politics or the consequent bad scientific research economics. In this way other Countries, hosting these researchers, get the advantages of having, sometimes, some exceptional scientists like our great Rita.

  5. A J said:

    Rita Levi-Montalcini was the oldest lived Nobel laureate and the first ever to reach a 100th birthday. On 22 April 2009, she was feted with a 100th birthday party at Rome’s city hall.May her soul rest in peace.

  6. shail sharma said:

    Rita Levi-Montalcini, I was a spell bound audience at one of your lectures in Washinghton. How beautifully you spoke without a break for over an hour. Scientists like you are rare to find.

    Shail K Sharma

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