Dear Associates,

we bring you the sad announcement of the passing of Giancarlo Lancini, founding member of SIMGBM, and publish a brief remembrance of him by our colleagues Margherita Sosio and Stefano Donadio.

Giancarlo Lancini has been a mainstay of SIMGBM since the early years of the Society’s existence. Giancarlo’s professional career took place entirely in industry, at Lepetit Laboratories, first in Milan, where he was also Director of Research, and then in Gerenzano. With a degree in chemistry, he soon became a “microbiologist at heart” interested in all aspects of microbiology, from genetics to physiology, from the biosynthesis of antibiotics to their mechanism of action, from the isolation of microorganisms from environmental samples to industrial production. It was a pleasure, and an experience, to discuss science with Giancarlo: he had a brilliant mind and a broad knowledge base to pass on what he knew and absorb what little he did not yet know. Having been personally involved in the research of new antibiotics for many years, he also had that empirical knowledge that was the basis of the “golden era of antibiotic discovery.” We recommend all SIMGBM members to read his observations and, between the lines, his personal reflections, in the article“Forty years of antibiotic discovery at Lepetit: a personal journey” SIM News 56: 192-212, 2006.

Until the mid-2000s, Giancarlo was a constant presence at SIMGBM Congresses and Delegate to FEMS. Many Members probably remember his decisive speeches at SIMGBM meetings, where he fought for many years for the Society to abandon its “elitist” regulations and allow novice researchers to become members and thus access the benefits of FEMS. “Junior” members have unfortunately not had the pleasure of knowing firsthand his humanity and his passion in so many areas, as well as his ability to involve and motivate, but undoubtedly, it is also thanks to Giancarlo’s tireless efforts that SIMGBM has become what it is today, that is, a fundamental reference for microbiology at the national level.


Giancarlo Lancini with Stefano Donadio


Giancarlo Lancini (first left) with Grazia Beretta, Ermes Pagani and Pietro Sensi in a photo from the early 1970s.