The Career of an Unfortunate Scientist

Giorgio Piccardi s scientific research extended for a period of about fifty years, and ended the year of his death in 1972. His career can be divided into two major parts. The first part comprises his physical chemistry research which continued until about 1940 the second period can be described as research on the influence of environmental variables on non-traditional systems of chemical, physical and biological evolution, which fall outside of thermodynamic equilibrium. Of this last period, which continued for three decades, much has been written, both good and bad, while very little has been said about his research in physical chemistry. It is for this reason that the present book seeks to redress this lack of homogeneity in the study of the work of Professor Piccardi, recalling his valuable initial work in physical chemistry. 

The results furnished evidence of Piccardi s dehcate research capabilities. The upshot was that he and RoUa established some relationships between the general experimental data pertaining to ionization potentials, atomic structure, chemical nature, and the periodic system. The next step was to measure directly the electron affinity of atoms and neutral molecules. Pursuing their investigation of the entire periodic system, it did not take long for these two chemists to note the special character of the rare-earths. 

000 fractional crystallizations of neodymium-samarium-bearing materials. And 

000 of the 56,000 fractions were accompanied by spectroscopic, roentgeno-graphic, and color-comparison checks [25]. 

This ambitious effort, lasting over the entire time that RoUa was at Florence (up to 1935), did not yield the expected results. Piccardi followed his director to his new Genoa headquarters and there, after about five years, he obtained, at the age of 43, the long-awaited position of Professor of Physical Chemistry (Fig. 5.4). 

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