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ISJ 15: 1, 2018                                                                  ISSN 1824-307X 

 
 

IN MEMORIAM 

 
ENZO OTTAVIANI 
Founder of ISJ-Invertebrate Survival Journal 
1945 - 2017 

 

 

 
 
 

On December 10th, 2017, Professor Enzo 
Ottaviani, founder and Editor-in-chief of this journal, 
unexpectedly passed away at age 71. Many are his 
contributions and it would be unthinkable to try to 
remember them all. 

As a comparative biologist, he provided 
provocative and fresh insights into where we came 
from as human beings. Among the questions he 
tried to find an answer to there are: Which is the 
origin of our unique nature and interaction with the 
environment that we are capable of? What does our 
system of integrated neuro-immune interactions 
have in common with simpler organisms where 
barriers among these systems do not exist?  

These ancient questions have bewildered and 
often profoundly divided scientists for decades. 
During the last forty years, research performed by 
Enzo Ottaviani, provided significant insights to these 

old questions, which led to an innovative 
comprehension of how basic immune, 
environmental and more recently, genetic factors 
interact to give rise to different outcomes in 
individuals. He was a pioneer in the study of 
equivalent behaviors and underlying functions in 
both simple as well as complex systems, and 
proposed that behavior may actually be sustained 
by processes that are more similar than different in 
diverse population, from the simplest to the more 
complex. 

His early work was in the area of neuro-immune 
integration where he proposed that these systems 
were organized into structures innately present from 
birth and throughout evolution. His work brought him 
into contact with a wide range of scientists from all 
over the world, including immunologists, 
endocrinologists, evolutionists and biologists, all of 
whom passionately discussed his findings within 
their respective fields of competence. 

In more recent years, Ottaviani turned his 
attention in particular to how his field of research 
might be linked to stress related disorders and 
inflammation, both because of their importance to 
human public health and as potential windows into 
the mechanisms that underlie human defense 
mechanisms and resistance to stress. In this 
context, I had the privilege of being the co-author of 
the last paper he published, a few days before he 
passed away. 

A generous scientist, Ottaviani mentored many 
students and inspired them with his curiosity and 
appetite for science. He was loyal and supportive to 
his many friends and colleagues. He was also an 
excellent communicator and a fervent writer, author 
of many articles, expert reviews, and books that 
cover different levels of comprehension.  

We will all miss him immensely because, 
without any doubt, he left a void that will be hard to 
fill, as a scientist, colleague, teacher, mentor and 
friend. 

 
Johanna Maria Catharina Blom 
Department of Education and Humanities 
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia 
Modena, Italy