Luigi Provasoli (1908 – 30 October 1992) was an Italian phycologist, professor, and expert on the nutrition, physiology, and cultivation of algae, protozoa, and

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordat ...

Career

Provasoli attended the University of Milan and earned his degree in 1931. He continued his studies into protozoa,

silkworms The domestic silk moth (''Bombyx mori''), is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of ''Bombyx mandarina'', the wild silk moth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silk moth. It is an economically im ...

and flagellates, and received his Ph.D in zoology in 1939. After his graduation, he worked in the lab of Andre Lwoff at the

Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (french: Institut Pasteur) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines ...

in Paris and developed a deep interest in algae. In 1942, he was appointed Professor at the

University of Camerino The University of Camerino ( it, Università degli Studi di Camerino) is a university located in Camerino, Italy. It is the best university of Italy among those with fewer than 10,000 students, according to the Guida Censis Repubblica 2011 and 201 ...

. Provasoli emigrated to the U.S. with his American wife after the outbreak of

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He was hired as an instructor at St. Francis College. By 1948, he was appointed Professor and Chairman of Biology. In 1951, Provasoli began collaborating with Seymour Hutner of Brooklyn College and Caryl Haskins of

Haskins Laboratories Haskins Laboratories, Inc. is an independent 501(c) non-profit corporation, founded in 1935 and located in New Haven, Connecticut, since 1970. Haskins has formal affiliation agreements with both Yale University and the University of Connecticut; ...

in Manhattan. In the 1960s, he served thrice on the

President's Science Advisory Committee The President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC) was created on November 21, 1957, by President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a direct response to the Soviet launching of the Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 satellites. PSAC was an upgrad ...

. He was president of the Phycological Society of America in 1961. In 1970, Provasoli moved with Haskins to

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

and began to research at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

Osborn Memorial Laboratories {{Coord, 41.3162, -72.9235, display=title The Osborn Memorial Laboratories in New Haven, Connecticut were built in 1913 as the home for biology at Yale University. In the past, they contained both zoology and botany, in the two wings on Sachem S ...

. He remained with Haskins until 1981. He also taught at Yale from 1970 until his retirement in 1987. Provasoli served on the boards of the American Institute of Biological Science and the

American Type Culture Collection ATCC or the American Type Culture Collection is a nonprofit organization which collects, stores, and distributes standard reference microorganisms, cell lines and other materials for research and development. Established in 1925 to serve as a nati ...

, and also was adviser to the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

and

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. Provasoli was the founding editor of the ''

Journal of Phycology The ''Journal of Phycology'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of phycology (the study of algae), published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. on behalf of the Phycological Society of America. The journal was established in 1965 and publ ...

''. Over the course of his career, he published over 80 works.

Awards

In 1982, Provasoli received the Gilbert Morgan Smith Award of the National Academy of Sciences.

Legacy

The Phycological Society of America gives out the Luigi Provasoli Award to authors of outstanding papers published in the ''Journal of Phycology''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Provasoli, Luigi 1908 births 1992 deaths Botanists with author abbreviations Haskins Laboratories scientists 20th-century Italian botanists Italian phycologists University of Milan alumni Yale University faculty