Giulio Natta

Giulio Natta was born on February 26, 1903, the son of a prominent Italian judge. He pursued a career in chemistry, holding professorships at the University of Pavia, Rome, and Torino before becoming the Director of the Polytechnic Institute Industrial Chemistry Research Center in Milan. His personal life included marriage to a literature professor, with whom he had two children. Natta's academic and research career was marked by significant contributions to the field of chemistry.His most notable achievement was his pioneering work in macromolecular chemistry, which led to a deeper understanding of the structure and synthesis of polymers. Specifically, his research focused on the stereospecific polymerization of alpha-olefins, leading to the discovery of isotactic and syndiotactic polymers. This fundamental work, which he shared with Karl Ziegler, earned them the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963. Natta passed away on May 2, 1979, at the age of 76.