María Dora Feliciangeli

María Dora Feliciangeli (1940 - 2017) was Professor of Medical Entomology at the University of Carabobo, Venezuela, who worked on the transmission of tropical parasites especially American trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease) and leishmaniasis. She was Coordinator of the National Reference Center of Sandflies and the Medical Entomology Section.

Education and personal life Feliciangeli was the daughter of Zeferino Feliciangeli and Maria Cerutti. She was born in Borgomanero and was brought up in Rieti in central Italy.

She graduated with a degree in biological sciences from the Sapienza University of Rome in 1965 and moved to Venezuela with her husband. From 1977, she studied at the University of London and was awarded a PhD degree in 1982. In 1963, she married the Venezuelan José Piñero. They had three children together. She died in 2017. She also led studies that demonstrated that infection with the pathogen Leishmania infantum had an adverse effect on the insect vectors.