Elio Lanzarone: a life for science

Abstract

We are sincerely grateful to have been invited by the Guest Editor of this special issue, Prof. Francesca Lisi, to write an article in honor of our mentor Gaetano Aurelio Lanzarone (for students, colleagues and friends simply 'Elio'). We were the first (Stefania) and last (Federico) of Elio's students, and we both entertained a particularly deep relation with him. What we want to do here is to provide a memoir of his life and career, while his smile, laughter and humor cannot be described in words, but only in the language of our hearts and memories. We believe that Elio's attitude towards life is well described by the words that Dante Alighieri in his 'Divina Commedia' (Divine Comedy, Inferno [Hell], Chant XXVI) attributes to Ulysses: 'Considerate la vostra semenza: fatti non foste a viver come bruti, ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza' ('Call to mind from whence ye sprang: Ye were not form'd to live the life of brutes, But virtue to pursue and knowledge high').