Rita Levi-Montalcini's Legacy: Nobel-Winning Neuroscientist and Lifelong Italian Senator

Rita Levi-Montalcini died on December 30, 2012 in Rome at age 103. Born April 22, 1909 into a Jewish family in Turin, her mother Adele Montalcini was a painter while her father Adamo Levi was an engineer who opposed her education. She earned a medical degree with honors from the University of Turin in 1936, studying under Giuseppe Levi alongside future Nobel laureates Salvador Luria and Renato Dulbecco. Mussolini's racial laws forced her to flee Italy, first to Brussels then back to Turin before hiding in Florence; she conducted research in a homemade laboratory during this period. In 1947 she accepted a position at Washington University in St. Louis, where she would work until retiring in 1977 while maintaining Italian citizenship. Her groundbreaking discovery of Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) in the early 1950s at Washington University earned her the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1986. President Ronald Reagan awarded her the National Medal of Science in 1987, America's highest scientific honor. She held memberships in the Royal Society and National Academy of Sciences and received over twenty honorary degrees. President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi appointed her Senator for Life in 2001. Throughout her career she mentored young researchers through CNR projects and advocated for scientists to remain in Italy. Her work on NGF advanced understanding of tumors, ALS, and Alzheimer's disease. She never married, dedicating her life entirely to research.