I always had an aversion for vapid and silly celebrities, even as a young girl. I would file them in my mind under the “useless” category and basically pretended they didn't exist.
My personal heroes weren’t indeed the ones who haunted the pages of magazines or TV programmes like bad viruses, but scientists, politicians, philosophers, novelists and artists, people I deemed worthy of respect since they had done something good for the rest of the world and who often had a distinguished personal style. One of them was - and still is - scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini.
I was a young girl when she received the Nobel Award, but my spirit was with her as she received the prize. I remember thinking at the time that it was simply great to see a scientist and a woman being honoured for her studies. I found it really inspiring.
Besides I thought she was a perfect icon of elegance with her perennially perfect grey-white waving hair, her thin figure and the way she moved and carried herself. The images of the awarding ceremony with Rita Levi-Montalcini wearing an iconic velvet dress with a little trail designed by Roberto Capucci stayed with me for a long time.
Rita Levi-Montalcini has turned 100 years old today. Italy has been celebrating this event with special ceremonies in the past few days and I feel that she really deserves a post on this blog.
Levi-Montalcini was born in Turin, where she graduated in medicine in 1936. She soon began studying the body’s nervous system, first with Professor Giuseppe Levi, and even kept on working on her research after the Fascist regime’s racial laws obliged her to emigrate to Belgium.
After going back to Turin in1940, she continued working in a lab in her house and started with Levi a research into the development of the central nervous system in chick embryos. Her studies continued at the Washington University where she moved in 1947 and, a few years later, in the early 50s, she discovered the Nerve Growth Factor (NFG), a protein that controls the growth of neurons. Her researches went on throughout the following decades and, in 1986, she received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine together with American biochemist Stanley Cohen.
Appointed a Senator for Life in 2001 by the President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Rita Levi-Montalcini never stopped studying and researching.
She also helped founding various scientific research institutes such as the EBRI (European Brain Research Institute) and established with her twin sister Paola the Fondazione Levi-Montalcini with the aim of supporting the younger generations in their education and professional growth, particularly the young women of the African countries.
At an official ceremony for her birthday that took place in Rome a couple of days ago she stated: “The body may die, but the messages that we have sent in life remain. My message is 'believe in values'.” Happy Birthday, Rita Levi-Montalcini, you're a great life (and style) inspiration!
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