Levi-Montalcini, Rita

(1909– ). An eminent neurobiologist, Rita Levi-Montalcini won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1986 for her groundbreaking work on nerve growth factor (NGF), a protein that governs the development and differentiation of nerve cells. The Nobel foundation said that the discovery of NGF was a classic example of how an “acute observer” can “extrapolate a clear theory from apparent chaos.”

   The Nobel prize was the climax of a glittering career that had begun in harsh circumstances. Deprived of her university position by the 1938 racial laws, Levi-Montalcini was forced to flee first to Belgium, then (after the Nazi invasion of that country in 1940) to a clandestine refuge in Florence for the duration of the war. After the city was liberated she worked as a doctor until 1947 when, at the age of almost 40, she got the chance to go to Washington University, Missouri, as a researcher. She stayed at Washington until retirement in 1977, although from 1961 onward she combined her professorship with the directorship of the Italian Institute of Cell Biology. LeviMontalcini continued to do original work in neurobiology until well into the 1990s.

   Levi-Montalcini was the first woman to be president of the Enciclopedia Italiana and, in recent years, has been active in promoting environmentalism and the cause of women’s rights. In August 2001, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi made her senator for life of the Italian Republic. This has proved to be no sinecure. In May 2006, the newly formed government of Romano Prodi survived its initial vote of confidence in Parliament thanks to her vote.

   See also Dulbecco, Renato.