Luigi Provasoli

Luigi Provasoli (1908 – 30 October 1992) was an Italian phycologist, professor, and expert on the nutrition, physiology, and cultivation of algae, protozoa, and invertebrates.

Career Provasoli attended the University of Milan and earned his degree in 1931. He continued his studies into protozoa, silkworms and flagellates, and received his Ph.D. in zoology in 1939.

Provasoli emigrated to the U.S. with his American wife after the outbreak of WWII. He was hired as an instructor at St. Francis College.

In 1970, Provasoli moved with Haskins to New Haven, Connecticut and began to research at Yale University's Osborn Memorial Laboratories. He remained with Haskins until 1981. He also taught at Yale from 1970 until his retirement in 1987.

Provasoli served on the boards of the American Institute of Biological Science and the American Type Culture Collection, and also was an adviser to the National Science Foundation and Smithsonian Institution. Provasoli was the founding editor of the Journal of Phycology. Over the course of his career, he published over 80 works.

Awards In 1982, Provasoli received the Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.

Legacy The Phycological Society of America gives the Luigi Provasoli Award annually to authors of outstanding papers published in the Journal of Phycology.