Rita Levi-Montalcini
Today women have occupied a greater name in the field of science,
proving that they are capable of equating men in their abilities to
conduct scientific research. They have taken significant positions in
the scientific field as compared to the more traditional roles: mother,
wife, and homemaker that existed in the past centuries.
Italian Neurophysiologist, Rita Levi-Montalcini is one exceptional
woman, who through her pioneering contribution and hard work has set an
amazing example for other women to follow her footsteps. She won the
1986 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine which she shared with the
biochemist Stanley Cohen, for their discovery of nerve growth factor
(NGF), a protein that causes developing cells to grow by stimulating
surrounding nerve tissue. At 101 years, she has the stamina that many
younger people might envy. On her workdays Rita gives equal time to her
namesake brain research laboratory and her foundation to support
African women with potential for scientific accomplishment.
Early Life, Education and Career Achievements:
Rita Levi-Montalcini was born on April 22, 1909 in Turin to a
Sephardic Jewish family. She was the youngest child of her parents,
Adamo Levi, an electrical engineer and talented mathematician, and Adele
Montalcini, a painter. She enrolled in the University of Turin in 1930
to study medicine, despite her father’s belief that women should not
pursue careers. After completing her graduation in 1936, she went to
work as Giuseppe Levi’s assistant, but her academic career was cut short
by Benito Mussolini’s 1938 Manifesto of Race and following the
introduction of laws barring Jews from intellectual and professional
careers.
“This led me to the joy of working, no longer, unfortunately, in university institutes, but in a bedroom.”
Dr. Levi-Montalcini simply constructed a laboratory in her own home
and conducted research in secrecy. For the next few years conducted
experiments on chicken embryos, she would cook and eat the remaining
yolks. While acting as a doctor in Italian refugee camps, she took out
time to publish her research on the sources of nerve constructs.
Subsequent to the Germans invasion of Italy, she left for Florence
and lived underground with her family. When the war ended, she accepted a
one-year residency at Washington University in St Louis, but stayed
more than three decades. She worked together with zoologist Viktor
Hamburger and after sometime with biochemist Stanley Cohen, pioneering
nerve-growth factor (NGF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF).
Levi-Montalcini and Cohen won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1986.
Indeed, the latter part of Levi-Montalcini’s life consists of a long
list of scientific prizes and honors. In addition to her continuing
research, she is an FAO Goodwill Ambassador (1999) and an Italian
Senator For life (2001).
