Anna Foà

Anna Foà (born January 16, 1876 in Rome ; died 1944 ) was an Italian entomologist and one of the first women to receive a scheduled professorship at an Italian university . In 1938 she was dismissed due to the Italian race laws .

biography

Anna Foa was born in Rome as the daughter of Max Foà and Esther Lattes into a Jewish family. She studied entomology at the University of Rome and graduated with a thesis on mites . Her doctoral supervisor was the zoologist and entomologist Giovanni Battista Grassi , professor of comparative anatomy. She worked with him for several years in Rome and gave lectures on agricultural entomology as an assistant. Between 1907 and 1912 the two published a series of articles together.

In 1905 she was entrusted with the newly established laboratory in Fauglia ( Pisa ), which had the task of carrying out experiments and observations in the fight against phylloxera. Foà works there with Grassi's doctoral students.

After the research results were published between 1912 and 1916, Foà was granted teaching permits at universities ( Libera docenza ) in 1917 . At the same time, she took on a job in the Ministry of Agriculture in the field of phytopathology, monitoring the import and export of plants.

In 1920 Foà won the tender for a professorship in sericulture at an agricultural college, either in Perugia or Portici . She took up her position in Portici.

In 1924 she received a call to the University of Naples for a chair in silkworm and beekeeping . She was one of the few women who held a full professorship. With the passage of the fascist race laws of 1938, Foà was expelled from the university and the Società dei Naturalisti Italiani (Italian Society of Naturalists). She was the only woman among the 96 full professors who were expelled from Italian universities as Jews.

She died in 1944.

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personal data
SURNAME	Foà, Anna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian entomologist
DATE OF BIRTH	January 16, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH	Rome
DATE OF DEATH	1944