Luigi Sacconi

Luigi Sacconi was bom 28 Febmary 1911 in Santa Croce, a town situated between Florence and Pisa. In 1941 he graduated in Pharmacy from the University of Florence, and soon afterward he obtained a position at the University of Parma. In 1942 he moved to Turin where he obtained a second degree, this time in Chemistry. Finally, in 1943, he moved to Florence with the rank of Assistant Professor. He became Professor of Inorganic Chemistry in 1954 at the University of Palermo, where, due to his moral rigor and rigidity in teaching, he became the subject of threats from the local underworld. 

Fig. 6.1 Luigi Sacconi (third from right) with his research group in Berlin, ca. 1975. Gift of Professor Renata Bamini-Bertini...

Franco Piacenti was bom in Florence on 1 July 1927. He completed his entire course of study in his hometown in 1951, majoring in Chemistry under the guidance of Luigi Sacconi (1911-92). Immediately after graduation, he moved to Milan Polytechnic Institute where his mentor was the future Nobel laureate Giulio Natta (1903-1979). At that time, Natta was conducting research on the polymerization of polypropylene which, in 1963, earned him his Nobel Prize, which he shared with Karl Ziegler (1898-1973), who prepared the catalysts that Natta used in his research [33]. 

Gatteschi D, Benelli C (2015) Introduction to molecular magnetism From transition metals to lanthanides. Wiley New York. An introductory textbook about the rapidly growing field of molecular magnetism was written by two professors from the University of Florence, former students of Luigi Sacconi and Ivano Bertini. 

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