Rita Levi-Montalcini: Difference between revisions
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==Biography== |
==Biography== |
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hi morgan Born in 1000 we are friend[[Turin]] to a [[Sephardic]] [[Jew]]ish family, together with her twin sister Paola she was the youngest of four children. Her parents were Adamo Levi, an electrical engineer and gifted mathematician, and Adele Montalcini, a talented painter described by Levi-Montalcini as "an exquisite human being." She decided to go to medical school after seeing a close family friend die of cancer. Levi-Montalcini overcame the objections of her father - who believed that "a professional career would interfere with the duties of a wife and mother" - and enrolled in the Turin [[medical school]] in [[1930]], studying with [[Giuseppe Levi]] and graduating in [[1936]]. She went to work as Levi's assistant, but her academic career was cut short by [[Benito Mussolini]]'s [[1938]] [[Manifesto della Razza]] and the subsequent introduction of laws barring [[Jew]]s from academic and professional careers. During [[World War II]], she conducted experiments from a home laboratory, studying the growth of [[nerve fiber]]s in chicken [[embryo]]s which laid the groundwork for much of her later research. Her first genetics laboratory was in her bedroom at her home. In [[1943]], her family fled south to [[Florence]], and she set up a laboratory there also. Her family returned to Turin in [[1945]]. |
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In September of [[1946]] Levi-Montalcini accepted an invitation to [[Washington University in St. Louis]], under the supervision of Professor Victor Hamburger. Although the initial invitation was for one semester, she stayed for thirty years. It was here that she did her most important work: isolating nerve growth factor (NGF) from observations of certain cancerous tissues that cause extremely rapid growth of nerve cells in [[1952]]. She was made a Full Professor in [[1958]], and in [[1962]] established a research unit in [[Rome]], dividing the rest of her time between there and [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]]. |
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From [[1961]] to [[1969]] she directed the Research Center of Neurobiology of the [[Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche|CNR]] (Rome), and from [[1969]] to [[1978]] the Laboratory of Cellular Biology. |
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In [[2000]], her twin sister [[Paola Levi-Montalcini]], a popular artist, died.she was very depressed and almost commited sewerside. |
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In [[August 1]] [[2001]] she has been appointed as [[senator for life]] by the then [[President of the Italian Republic]], [[Carlo Azeglio Ciampi]]. |
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In [[April 28]] and [[April 29|29]], [[2006]], Levi-Montalcini, aged 97, attended the opening assembly of the newly-elected [[Senate of Italy]] which brought to the appointment of the new Speaker, and declared her preference for the centre-left candidate [[Franco Marini]]. Levi-Montalcini, who is the senior member of the Upper House, chose not to be the temporary president on this occasion. She actively takes part in the Upper House discussions, unless busy in academic activities around the world. |
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Levi-Montalcini is currently the oldest living laureate and, after [[Tadeusz Reichstein]], the second-longest-lived laureate. |
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==Awards and Honors== |
==Awards and Honors== |
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Revision as of 13:29, 3 October 2007
Rita Levi-Montalcini | |
|---|---|
| File:LeviMontalcini.jpg Rita Levi-Montalcini | |
| Born | April 22, 1909 |
| Nationality |  Italian |
| Alma mater | Turin Medical School |
| Known for | Growth factors |
| Awards | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1986) National Medal of Science (1987) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neurologist |
| Institutions | Washington University in St. Louis |
Rita Levi-Montalcini (born April 22, 1909) is an Italian neurologist who, together with colleague Stanley Cohen, received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of growth factors. Today she is the oldest living Nobel laureate. She is senator for life in Italian Senate.
Biography
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Awards and Honors
In 1968, she became the tenth woman elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences.
she throw up a cow and eat a horse<333In 1986 Levi-Montalcini and collaborator Stanley Cohen received the Nobel Prize in Medicine, as well as the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. This made her the fourth Nobel Prize winner to come from Italy's small (<50,000) Jewish community, after Emilio Segrè, Salvador Luria (a university colleague and friend) and Franco Modigliani.
In 1987, she received National Medal of Science, the highest honor in the scientific world of America.
In 2001 she was nominated as Senator-for-life by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
References
- Levi-Montalcini, Rita, In Praise of Imperfection: My Life and Work. Basic Books, New York, 1988.
- Yount, Lisa (1996). Twentieth Century Women Scientists. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 0-8160-3173-8.
- Muhm, Myriam : Vage Hoffnung für Parkinson-Kranke - Überlegungen der Medizin-Nobelpreisträgerin Rita Levi-Montalcini , Süddeutsche Zeitung, Nr. 293, 22. December 1986 [1]
External links
- Autobiography at the Nobel e-Museum
- Article in German
- The Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize
Categories:
- 1909 births
- Living people
- Sephardi Jews
- History of neuroscience
- Italian Life Senators
- Italian neuroscientists
- Jewish scientists
- Members and associates of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
- National Medal of Science recipients
- Foreign Members of the Royal Society
- People from the Province of Turin
- Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine
- Washington University in St. Louis faculty
- Women biologists
- Italian Jews
- Inductees of the Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit
- Italian agnostics
- American agnostics
- Members of the French Academy of Sciences