Rita Levi-Montalcini

Today I would like to share with you the life story of Rita Levi-Montalcini, an Italian neurologist who in 1986 received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the Nerve Growth Factor (a substance that stimulates growth of nerve cells).


Born in 1909 in Turin, (she celebrated her 100th birthday last year) she is the oldest living Noble laureate.
Despite her father’s objections that pursuing a career in medicine would interfere with her duties as a wife and mother, she graduated from the University of Turin in 1936. During the German occupation in Italy, because of her Jewish ancestry, she was forced to go into hiding in Florence. But this didn’t stop her from continuing her work in a home laboratory she set up in her bedroom.

In 1947 she accepted a post at Washington University in the U.S., with the zoologist Viktor Hamburger, who was studying the growth of nerve tissue in chick embryos. Although she was only supposed to stay there for a semester, she prolonged her stay for thirty years, accepting the job of professor. There she did most of the research and discoveries for which she was later awarded.

After leaving Washington University she continued working in the field at the Institute of Cell Biology in Rome. In 1988, after being awarded with the Nobel prize along with her collaborator Stanley Cohen, she published her autobiography, ‘In praise of imperfection’. In 2001 she was appointed a senator for life by the President of Italy.

I decided to make my post about this exceptional scientist after seeing a power-point presentation of an interview done by her  in 2005. Here you will find the text of that interview. I really recommend  you read it. I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as I did and you will see how deeply inspiring her attitude to life is.

Also, in case you are interested, here are the links for the Nobel Prize site where you can find, among other information, her autobiography and  a transcript of her speech at the award ceremony.