Rita Levi Montalcini (b. Turin, Italy, 1909 – d. 2012, Rome, Italy) was an Italian American neurologist. She shared the Nobel Prize with biochemist Stanley Cohen for Physiology or Medicine in 1986 for her discovery of a bodily substance that stimulates and influences the growth of nerve cells. Levi-Montalcini studied medicine at the University of Turin. Although she was forced into hiding in Florence during the German occupation of Italy (1943 – 1945) because of her Jewish ancestry, she was able to resume her research at Turin after the war. In 1947 she accepted a post at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. She eventually held dual citizenship in Italy and the United States. Levi-Montalcini established the Institute of Cell Biology in Rome in 1962 and thereafter divided her time between the institute and Washington University. In 2001, Italian Prime Minister Carlo Azeglio Ciampi appointed Levi-Montalcini a senator for life for her outstanding contributions to science.
