Rita Levi-Montalcini Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Rita Levi-Montalcini (Italian pronunciation: [?rita ?l?vi montal?t?ini]; 22 April 1909 – 30 December 2012) was an Italian neurologist who, together with colleague Stanley Cohen, received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of nerve growth factor (NGF). Also, from 2001, until her death, she served in the Italian Senate as a Senator for Life.Rita Levi-Montalcini had been the oldest living Nobel laureate and the first ever to reach a 100th birthday. On 22 April 2009, she was feted with a 100th birthday party at Rome's city hall.
Paola Levi-Montalcini, Gino Levi-Montalcini, Anna Levi-Montalcini
Awards
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, National Medal of Science for Biological Sciences
Star Sign
Taurus
#
Fact
1
She chose to avoid marriage and children to pursue her career in science, because during her generation, it "wasn't done" for a woman to be a professional and also have a family life.
2
Served as Director of the Institute of Cell Biology of the Italian National Council of Research, in Rome, 1969 to 1978.
3
In the years during and after World War II, Rita worked on chicken embryos, amputating their limbs to discover how this would affect the growing organism's nervous system. Her discoveries led to the description of naturally occurring cell death and of neurotrophic factors in the nervous system. Rita was invited in 1946 to continue her studies at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri.
4
When the Allied armies forced the Germans to leave Florence, Italy, in August of 1944, Rita was hired as a medical doctor and assigned to a camp of war refugees. She served as nurse and medical doctor, treating typhus and other diseases.
5
Graduated in 1936 from medical school with a summa cum laude degree in Medicine and Surgery, and enrolled in the three year specialization in neurology and psychiatry. That same year, Benito Mussolini issued laws prohibiting non-Aryan Italian citizens from indulging in academic or professional careers; Rita's family had to seek work that would spare them from persecution. Rita wanted to continue her medical research, so she built a small research unit in her bedroom.
6
Older brother Gino was a well-known Italian architect and a professor at the University of Turin.
7
In 1986, Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini and her colleague, Dr. Stanley Cohen (b. 1937), won the Nobel Prize in medicine for the discoveries of NGF (nerve growth factor), a substance found in malignant tumors that causes nerve fibers to grow rapidly, and of EGF (epidermal growth factor), which is used in the treatment of severe burns.
8
Her twin sister Paola Levi-Montalcini (1909-2000) became a famous painter in Italy.
9
Her parents were Adamo Levi, an electrical engineer and mathematician, and Adele Montalcini, a painter.
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Giovanni XXIII, Il pensiero e la memoria
2008
Documentary
Death by Design: Where Parallel Worlds Meet
1997
Documentary
Herself
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
Quelli che... il calcio
2007
TV Series
Herself
Known for movies
Death by Design: Where Parallel Worlds Meet 1997 as Herself
Giovanni XXIII, Il pensiero e la memoria 2008 as Actress
$1.7 Million
