The Italian neuroscientist Rita Levi-Montalcini became the first Nobel laureate to reach the age of 100, on 22 April. During birthday celebrations at a scientific meeting in Rome, Italian education minister Maria Stella Gelmini announced two gifts to honour her.
One was a €500,000 (US$650,000) one-off sum to the research institute that Levi-Montalcini founded, the European Brain Research Institute in Rome, which is close to bankruptcy (see Nature 458, 564–567; 2009). The second was a €6-million programme, named after her, to return 30 young scientists working abroad to Italy on three-year grants.
Many scientists criticized the donations as drops in the ocean, but Levi-Montalcini said the gestures were more than she had dared to imagine. She did not seem to tire during nearly a week of public celebrations.
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Nobel laureate celebrates her centenary. Nature 458, 1090 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/4581090b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4581090b
