The Pallanza Institute

In Italy, paleolimnology was born in Pallanza, at the CNR-IRSA Institute, formerly the Italian Institute of Hydrobiology and Institute of Ecosystem Study, located on the Piedmont side of Lake Maggiore, in the Province of Verbano Cusio Ossola (VCO).

The photo shows the Pallanza’s Institute as it appears today.

Here it shows how it looked at the time of its foundation (1938).

The Italian Institute of Hydrobiology Dr. Marco De Marchi

Foundation in 1938

The donation to the Italian Kingdom included two villas, that of Pallanza on Lake Maggiore and that of Varenna, on Lake Como. The Pallanza’s Institute took the name of the Italian Institute of Hydrobiology, Dr. Marco de Marchi “, an inscription that can still be read on top of the main facade of the villa. The donation was aimed at creating a research center dedicated to the study of lakes, as explained on the plaque placed at the entrance’s hall of Villa de Marchi.

The first director of the newborn institute was Edgardo Baldi, professor of hydrobiology at the University of Milan. He was assistant to Professor Rina Monti Stella, the first woman in the Kingdom to occupy a university chair. Already a student of Camillo Golgi, Professor Emilia Stella was a pioneer of limnology in Italy, studies to which she became passionate following the lessons of Professor Pietro Pavesi, at the University of Pavia where she graduated. After Baldi, Vittorio Tonolli succeeded at the direction of the Institute.. After his death in 1967, his wife Livia succeeded him. Livia Pirocchi Tonolli had been a student and, together with Baldi, assistant to Professor Rina Monti Stella. The Tonolli spouses gave a great boost to limnological research.

Represented here are some of the prestigious scientists who completed their studies at the Pallanza Institute. After the armistice of September 8th 1943 Giuseppe Ramazzotti moved to Lake Maggiore. Here the meeting took place between Ramazzotti and Edgardo Baldi, then director of the Institute, to whom his brother-in-law Adriano Buzzati Traverso had moved with his pupil, Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza. Giuseppe Ramazzotti began to publish scientific articles and voluminous monographs on tardigrades and, at 60, he became a professor at the University of Milan. The prestigious Tardigrades collection (Ramazzotti Collection) is now kept in the Museum of the Pallanza Institute.

These photos show some of the best known and most famous limnologists who have spent more or less long periods at the institute of Pallanza contributing to the growth and prestige of this Institute at the beginning of its existence.

CNR ISE’s 1983-2018 directors and IRSA’S current directorate

The Verbania Unit of IRSA carries out basic and applied research on fresh water environments to improve the understanding of ecosystem processes and services in relation to the impact of climate change and anthropic activities. This research generates the scientific knowledge necessary to allow effective conservation of aquatic environments and to plan environmental restoration actions and to provide indispensable support for the management of resources and their sustainable use. Since 1938 it has published his own international scientific journal, initially called “Memoriedell’Istituto Italiano di idrobiologia” and subsequently “Journal of Limnology”. The images depict examples of scientific articles that have gone down in history and special volumes dedicated to research activities of international relevance. Volume 57 was the last published in the “Memorie” series.