LEVI, GIUSEPPE

LEVI, GIUSEPPE (1872–1965), Italian neuroanatomist and histologist. A member of a well-known family of Trieste bankers, Levi in 1910 was appointed professor of human anatomy at Sassari, Sardinia. In 1915 he moved to Palermo, and four years later was made director of the Institute of Human Anatomy of the University of Turin. Levi's long and brilliant research career centered on microscopic anatomy, particularly of the nerve cell. He laid the foundations of much of our knowledge of the factors that determine the size of sensory and motor neurons. He was one of the pioneers of the technique of tissue culture. Levi was an outspoken anti-Fascist, and in 1933 was imprisoned for several weeks. In 1938, under Mussolini's racial law, he was removed from his post. He took refuge in Belgium, where he set up a laboratory, but his work was cut short by the German invasion and he returned to Turin. There, although in his seventies, he managed to continue his research and writing clandestinely. At the end of the war he was restored to the directorship of the Institute of Human Anatomy. (Mordecai L. Gabriel)