Chem. Senses 28: 1,
2003
© Oxford University Press 2003
Obituary
Michael Meredith and
Edward E. Morrison
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Pasquale P.C. Graziadei (1921-2002)
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 Pasquale P.C. Graziadei (1921...
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Pasquale Graziadei, a pioneer in olfactory-system research and author of
more than 60 research papers and hundreds of abstracts, died on June 2, 2002
in Tallahassee, FL, USA, where he was Professor Emeritus of Biological Science
and Neuroscience at Florida State University. Pasquale Graziadei was a
founding member of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences (AChemS), and a
well-known contributor to symposia and conferences on olfactory anatomy and
development throughout the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. A well-loved
character and valuable collaborator for many within the field, he could be
uncompromising, insightful and funny all at the same time. Pasquale's
`stories' were always entertaining and perceptive, his criticism constructive
and at times pungent. His passing is the end of an era.
Pasquale Graziadei was born in Pavia, Italy, in 1921 and studied medicine
at University of Pavia, graduating with an MD in 1947. He joined the
Department of Anatomy Pavia, the institution of legendary anatomists Antonio
Scarpa and Camillo Golgi, as the equivalent of Assistant Professor, and
studied with a student of Golgi's. In 1952 he took a position as Associate
Professor of Anatomy at the University of Genoa, becoming the equivalent of
Full Professor in 1958. He spent summers at the `Stazione Zoologica' at
Naples, where he met J.Z. Young and others of the nascent international
neuroscience community. In 1962 he moved to London at the invitation of Young
and others to continue his anatomical research at University College. While
there, he met Lloyd Beidler, who invited him to Florida State
University—where he did the bulk of his work, and acquired an
international reputation as an outstanding research scientist and innovator.
In 1982 he was awarded the first IFF-Stanley K Freeman award (through AChemS)
for outstanding contributions to chemoreception research. In the same year he
was awarded the Allessandro Volta Award from his alma mater, the University of
Pavia. In 1987 he was honored by the `Instituto Neurologico C. Besta' for
contributions to scientific discovery and, in the same year, received a
prestigious Jacob Javits seven-year research-funding award. In 1993 Pasquale
Graziadei was appointed Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State
University. He was a regular ad-hoc panelist for many NIH and NSF site visits,
a managing editor for Journal of Applied Histochemistry, associate
editor for Journal of Neurocytology and a contributor to the National
Strategic Reseach Plan that led to the creation of the National Institute of
Deafness and other Communication Disorders. Graziadei was the first to
suggest, and then to demonstrate, that olfactory receptor neurons were
continually generated in vivo and that the population of globose
basal cells serves as progenitors for the newly born neurons. He showed that
olfactory neuron axons were critical in inducing the formation of their normal
target, the olfactory bulb, during normal development. Using embryonic
transplants, he showed that these axons could even invade and form
synapse-like structures with CNS neurons in a wide range of other brain
structures. In these studies Pasquale Graziadei's collaborators included his
wife Ariella Monti-Graziadei, who made critical contributions to many studies,
in addition to a series of graduate and postdoctoral students at Florida State
University. He retired from Florida State University in 1996.
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