丽塔·列维-蒙塔尔奇尼

生平

列维-蒙塔尔奇尼出生于意大利都灵一个塞法迪犹太人家庭。1936年毕业于一都灵医学院。后因贝尼托·墨索里尼的高压政治及随后出台的法律限制犹太人从事学术和职业生涯，她的学术生涯被打断。第二次世界大战期间，她在一个家庭实验室进行试验，利用鸡胚研究神经纤维的生长。1943年，随她的家人逃到南部的佛罗伦萨。1945年返回都灵。

1946年列维-蒙塔尔奇尼接受邀请到美国圣路易斯华盛顿大学做研究。1952年她分离出了神经生长因子（Nerve growth factor）。1958年升为正教授。除了在圣路易斯华盛顿大学的研究，她从1961年至1969年还在罗马主持意大利国家研究委员会（CNR）的神经生物学研究中心；1969年1978年主持细胞生物学研究室。

丽塔·列维-蒙塔尔奇尼还是意大利终身参议员。

奖励与荣誉

1968年 成为第十位女性当选为美国国家科学院院士。

1986年 和合作者史丹利·科恩分享诺贝尔医学奖

1986年 获基础医学研究拉斯克奖。

1987年 获得美国国家科学奖章，美国最高的科学荣誉。

2001年 被意大利总统钱皮提名为终身参议员。

Rita Levi-Montalcini (born Rita Levi; 22 April 1909 – 30 December 2012) was an Italian neurobiologist. She was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with colleague Stanley Cohen for the discovery of nerve growth factor (NGF).

From 2001 until her death, she also served in the Italian Senate as a senator for life. This honor was given due to her significant scientific contributions. On 22 April 2009, she became the first Nobel laureate to reach the age of 100, and the event was feted with a party at Rome's City Hall.

Early life and education

Levi-Montalcini was born on 22 April 1909 in Turin, to Italian Jewish parents with roots dating back to the Roman Empire. She and her twin sister Paola (who would become a respected artist best known for her reflective aluminum sculptures) were the youngest of four children. Her parents were Adele Montalcini, a painter, and Adamo Levi, an electrical engineer and mathematician, whose families had moved from Asti and Casale Monferrato, respectively, to Turin at the turn of the twentieth century.

Career and research

During World War II, Levi-Montalcini set up a laboratory in her bedroom in Turin and studied the growth of nerve fibers in chicken embryos, discovering that nerve cells die when they lack targets, and laying the groundwork for much of her later research. She described this experience decades later in the science documentary film Death by Design: The Life and Times of Life and Times (1997).

When Germany invaded Italy in September 1943, her family fled south to Florence, where they survived The Holocaust, under false identities, protected by some non-Jewish friends. During the Nazi occupation, Levi-Montalcini was in contact with the partisans of the Action Party.……

Political career

On 1 August 2001, she was appointed as senator for life by the President of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

On 28–29 April 2006, Levi-Montalcini, aged 97, attended the opening assembly of the newly elected Senate, at which the President of the Senate was elected. She declared her preference for the centre-left candidate Franco Marini. Due to her support of the government of Romano Prodi, she was often criticized by some right-wing senators, who accused her of saving the government when the government's exiguous majority in the Senate was at risk. Her old age was mocked by far-right politician Francesco Storace.

Personal life and death

Levi-Montalcini had an older brother, Gino, who died after a heart attack in 1974. He was one of the best-known contemporary Italian architects and a professor at the University of Turin. She had two sisters: Anna, five years older than Rita, and Paola, her twin sister, a popular artist who died on 29 September 2000, age 91.

In 2003, she filed a libel suit for defamation against comedian Beppe Grillo, who had called her – who was then 94 years old – an "old whore" during one of his shows.

Levi-Montalcini never married and had no children. In a 2006 interview, she said, "I never had any hesitation or regrets in this sense... My life has been enriched by excellent human relations, work and interests.……

Awards and honours

She was a founding member of Città della Scienza. and Academician of Studium, Accademia di Casale e del Monferrato, Italy.

Other attributions

In April 2016, a spontaneous orchid (a hybrid between Ophrys incubacea and Ophrys sphegodes subsp. classica), was named after her: 'Ophrys × montalciniae'.

The videogame Elite Dangerous has named numerous space stations after her.

The card game "Endowed Chairs: Neurology" features Levi-Montalcini as one of 12 neurologist Luminaries.