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Nicola Loprieno 15/09/1930–
01/01/2010
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Nicola Loprieno died at midday on January 1st 2010. With his death a great scientist of exceptional human gifts left us.
After graduating, Nicola spent five years in research in the chemical industry, in charge of a research group working on new pesticides. This was to be a precious learning experience for him, but the young Nicola felt hampered by the limited possibilities of contact with the international scientific research community. By a stroke of luck, his CV and the farsightedness of Francesco D'Amato, one of the finest geneticists in Italy at the time, opened the doors for him to university level research.
Over the next two years after leaving industry, he visited three importantEuropean research laboratories. At Uppsala, in Sweden, he worked in the Department of Physiological Botany, directed by Niels Fries. At Edinburgh, in Scotland, he met Charlotte Auerbach: Later, he was to write “From her I learned how to organize experimental research properly”. At Berne, in Switzerland he worked with Urs Leupold, who introduced him to the study of the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. From 1969 to 1977 Nicola was Director of the National Research Council (CNR) “Laboratory of Mutagenesis and Differentiation” in Pisa.
In 1980 Nicola became Full Professor of Genetic Toxicology in Milan and, in 1990, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Siena. From 1969 until 1997 he lectured in no fewer than nine different disciplines, from General Genetics to Environmental Mutagenesis.
He chaired the most important scientific bodies in his field,: the Italian Genetic Society (1972–1974): the European Environmental Mutagen Society (1980–1982); the Italian Environmental Carcinogenesis Society (1982–1984); the Italian Environmental Mutagen Society (1991–1992).
In the 1980s and 1990s he was either director or coordinator on numerous research projects, including the CNR Strategic Research Programme on Genetic Toxicology, and the EEC-STEP Program on Biomonitoring of Human Populations Exposed to Pesticides. In the Nineties, he was a member of the Organizing Committee of the First, Second and Third World Congresses on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences; Education, Research and Testing (Baltimore, U.S.A.; Utrecht, The Netherlands; Bologna, Italy).
Without doubt his founding the discipline of environmental mutagenesis in Italy and the unremitting scientific and organisational activities he carried out for the European Union are part of Nicola’s most important achievements. But we would like to keep in mind here what we see as his most important human and professional qualities: (1) he was completely open minded, in both in his research and teaching; (2) his was a non provincial vision of research that led him to establish innumerable scientific contacts all over the world; (3) he had a highly lucid vision of the relationship between basic and applied research; (4) his was an exceptional capacity to translate the results of the most rigorous experimental research into socially useful interventions; (5) finally, his attitude was never detached; emotionally he was always intensely involved – and he involved others.
In his early research activity, Nicola’s attention turned to the workplace and the social needs of workers, with innovative studies on professional tumours caused by vinyl chloride at Rosignano Solvay and spontaneous abortions in the leatherworks at Santa Croce sull'Arno; he stirred the international scientific community into action over the Seveso disaster in July 1976; his were investigations after the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl in April 1986, to mention just a few instances.
At a practical level, Nicola was successful in control and reclamation of the work environment. We owe the institution of instruments such as “environmental commissions”, registers of environmental data and workers’ personal health record and risks notebooks. One important practical result of this interaction between trades unions struggles and scientific research was the approval in 1970 of the Law 20 May 1970 n. 300 (Statuto dei Lavoratori – The Workers’ Statute). Articole 9 refers specifically to safeguarding the health of workers and the promotion of research in the field of safeguardimg health.
For the last twenty years, Nicola concentrated his efforts on strategies for testing the genotoxicity of cosmetic ingredients, on animal experimentation and alternative methods to using animals for testing in toxicology and on the European revision of pesticides and biocides. As an expert in the field of genetic toxicology, he was involved in private and governmental actions dealing with hazard identification and risk assessment in various fields, including industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, pesticides and agricultural products, food ingredients and processes, biotechnological products. At local, national and international levels, he served on many committees for risk evaluation associated with specific production areas.
Since 1979, as a member of the National Consulting Committee for Toxicology of the Ministry of Health of the Italian Government, Nicola was involved in policy decisions concerning major toxicological issues. Furthermore, as a member of the Committee for Registration of Pesticides of the Ministry of Health of the Italian Government, he was involved in the registration or revision of pesticides, in Italy and, recently, in the European Revision (Directive 91/414/EEC) including the biocides.
At the European level, he collaborated extensively with DGV, DGXI, DGXII, and DGXXIV on the preparation of several Directives and Safety Evaluation of Chemicals.
Nicola’s commitment at a political and institutional level is widely-known. Here we wish to observe only that as a Senator of the Republic (1983–1987), he never exceeded the bounds of his scientific responsibilities but chose to work politically on technical committees. This choice reflected one of his earliest teachings to his pupils: Political engagement works best if you bring your professional training to it. In Nicola two ideas were balanced perfectly: scientific research can be inspired by social problems and the scientist’s political engagement must be expressed in his research.
As part of his teaching, Nicola took great pains in forming a group of young pupils capable of doing independent scientific research. Over the years the original group changed and grew, and some of his pupils set up a second generation of younger pupils. Nicola was and is the great head of this school.
Over the years of his activity, Nicola was invited several times to take up important positions in universities abroad but he always chose to place his family, with its roots in Pisa, first, before these gratifying offers. He had studied in Pisa, had grown up there, his best work had been done there, Pisa is the city he always returned to with pleasure, for the love of his wife Giovanna and his children Marco, Gregorio e Andrea, his grandchildren and his many friends.
