LEVI, MARIO GIACOMO

LEVI, MARIO GIACOMO (1878–1955), Italian chemist. Born in Padua, Levi worked there until 1906, when he moved to the University of Pisa. In 1909 he became professor of technological chemistry at the University of Palermo, Sicily, and in 1919 was appointed the first director of the Higher Institute for Commercial and Colonial Studies. In 1927 Levi went to Milan as professor of industrial chemistry at the Polytechnic. When Mussolini introduced legislation against Jews in the professions in 1938, he went to live in Lausanne, Switzerland. An Italian patriot, Levi played an important role in the development of his country's chemical industry. His contributions to technical and scientific journals included papers on the Deacon chlorine process, hyposulfites, fuels, the noble gases, radioactivity, electrochemistry, nonaqueous solvents, and catalysis. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J.C. Poggendorff, Biographisch-literarisches Handwoerterbuch, 5 (1926), S.V.; 6 (1938), S.V.; Chimica e Industria (then Notiziario Chimico-industriale), 2 (1927), 4–5.