Rita Levi-Montalcini
The last in our list of most important historical figures in Italy is Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini, who not only contributed to the field of neurobiology by discovering the nerve growth factor but also set an example for women of her time and for the following generations, by defying all the expectations that a young woman at the beginning of the XX Century was subjected to. She made the decision to devote her entire life to science in the firm belief that men and women have the same intellectual capability but fundamentally different approaches in a culture that considered the role of wife and mother as the highest position a female could aspire to. She made contributions to innovative medical research before serving in the Italian Senate till her death (2012).
After a 1938 rule prohibiting Jews from holding positions in higher education was implemented, Levi-Montalcini lost her job as an assistant in the anatomy department. She established a laboratory in her bedroom in Turin during World War II and examined the development of nerve fibers in chicken embryos, learning that nerve cells perish when they have no targets and establishing the foundation for much of her subsequent study. Years later, in the science documentary Death by Design/The Life and Times of Life and Times, she spoke about this incident (1997). The movie also includes her identical twin sister Paola, who rose to prominence as an accomplished artist and is most known for her aluminum sculptures, which are intended to illuminate the surroundings thanks to their reflecting, white surfaces.
