Rita Levi-Montalcini was an Italian-American neurobiologist and physician whose work spanned neurology, biochemistry, and neuroscience across more than a century of life.

Born in Turin on April 22, 1909, she was educated at the University of Turin, where she trained in medicine. She held dual citizenship in Italy and the United States, and worked in both Italian and English throughout her career. Her roles extended beyond the laboratory: she worked as a scientist, a docent, and a politician, reflecting a range of professional engagements across different phases of her life. Among the many honors she accumulated, she received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the National Medal of Science, the Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, and the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. She was also elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society.

The defining recognition of her career came in 1986, when she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Stanley Cohen for the discovery of nerve growth factor, known as NGF. That discovery, situated at the intersection of neurology and biochemistry, stands as the most frequently cited achievement associated with her name. She died in Rome on December 30, 2012, at the age of 103. Her work, conducted across two countries and in two languages, remained anchored throughout in the study of how nervous systems develop — a sustained focus on nerve growth that the Nobel committee formally recognized more than two decades before her death.