Rita Levi-Montalcini
Rita Levi-Montalcini
Rita Levi-Montalcini, OMRI, OMCAwas an Italian Nobel laureate, honored for her work in neurobiology. She was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with colleague Stanley Cohen for the discovery of nerve growth factor. From 2001 until her death, she also served in the Italian Senate as a Senator for Life...
NationalityItalian
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth22 April 1909
CityTurin, Italy
CountryItaly
moments difficult difficult-moments
Above all, don’t fear difficult moments. The best comes from them
years messages behind-you
If I die tomorrow or in a year, it is the same — it is the message you leave behind you that counts.
brain too-much firsts
Find first peace within yourself. Don't eat too much. Keep your brain active. Love.
mind want doe
The body does whatever it wants. I am not my body; I am my mind.
country masculine-and-feminine born
I say to the young, be happy that you were born in Italy because of the beauty of the human capital, both masculine and feminine, of this country... No other country has such human capital.
mind thanks superiors
At 100, I have a mind that is superior - thanks to experience- than when i was 20.
nobel persecution ifs
If I had not been discriminated against or had not suffered persecution, I would never have received the Nobel Prize.
expression snakes growth
As for the presence of large NGF [nerve growth factor] sources in snake venom and male genital organs, they may be conceived as instances of bizarre evolutionary gene expression.
process nobel complexes
The process for awarding Nobel prizes is so complex that it cannot be corrupted.
years perfection long
It is imperfection - not perfection - that is the end result of the program written into that formidably complex engine that is the human brain, and of the influences exerted upon us by the environment and whoever takes care of us during the long years of our physical, psychological and intellectual development.
spring home army
After a short period spent in Brussels as a guest of a neurological institute, I returned to Turin on the verge of the invasion of Belgium by the German army, Spring 1940, to join my family. The two alternatives left then to us were either to emigrate to the United States, or to pursue some activity that needed neither support nor connection with the outside Aryan world where we lived. My family chose this second alternative. I then decided to build a small research unit at home and installed it in my bedroom.
race joy bedroom
I should thank Mussolini for having declared me to be of an inferior race. This led me to the joy of working, not any more unfortunately, in university institutes but in a bedroom,
latin father school
At 20, I realized that I could not possibly adjust to a feminine role as conceived by my father and asked him permission to engage in a professional career. In eight months I filled my gaps in Latin, Greek and mathematics, graduated from high school, and entered medical school in Turin.
projects instruments chemicals
The instruments, glassware, and chemical reagents necessary for my project were the same as my 19th-century predecessors had.