IN MEMORIAN
In memoriam
May 1st, 2009 was Labor Day and also the date Professor Francesco Langone passed away. He was a victim of a rapidly evolving malignant neoplasia. There is not a better date to symbolize a man who was a perfect example of a hard worker, both extremely competent and persistent. Francesco Langone was born on October 19th, 1950 in the small Italian city of Satriano di Lucania. He is the son of Rocco Langone and Carolina Sivolella Langone. Francesco arrived in Brazil as a child and followed the majority of other Italian immigrants into São Paulo.
It was in São Paulo that his teachers at the school "Fernão Dias Paes", taught him to always search for answers to that which is unknown in nature. This mentality encompasses the mindset any biologist needs to have, and Francesco definitely had this mindset.
On his quest to understand nature better, he started his undergraduate work in Biological Sciences at the University of São Paulo (USP) in 1971. While still attending USP, the classrooms of the Florence Institute of Education in Pompéia, São Paulo, were where he first started teaching. As time went by, his enthusiasm for teaching and research only grew. In 1977, Francesco started lecturing Biophysics and Physiology at the Catholic University of Campinas (PUCC), where he stayed until February 1985.
Also, in 1977, he started to visit the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the Institute of Biology at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP). In 1983, he started his master's program there, under the supervision of Professor Antônio Ari Gonçalves. Finishing his teaching at PUCC, he started teaching at UNICAMP in March 1985 in the Department of Anatomy, which he continued for thirteen years. The year 1986 marked completion of his master's program in which he studied the electro-physiological phenomenon related with the mechanism of insulin secretion in the beta cells in pancreatic islets.
Continuing his academic and scientific training, he joined the doctorate program in 1987 of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at USP in the Department of Anatomy. With the guidance of Professor Ciro Ferreira da Silva, he began to study the cellular phenomenon related to the regeneration of peripheral nerves, by implanting an experimental model that created a micro-environment to manipulate axon regeneration in vivo.
After finishing his doctorate in 1991, he started at Fidia Research Laboratories in Padova, Italy in the area of neuronal plasticity, specifically with peripheral nerve regeneration. During his time in Italy, he worked not only in the Fidia laboratory, but also in the Department of Neuropathology at the University of Verona, in the Department of Cellular Pathology at the Pasteur Institute of Lyon and in the Legnaro Institute of Photochemistry and High Energy Radiation. Thanks to the collaborations kept by the Fidia Laboratories with several others in Italy and around Europe, he was able to visit many facilities like the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Nancy, the Department of Cellular Biology at the University of Torino and the Neuroscience Department at the Karolisnka Institute in Stockholm.
Upon returning to Brazil in November of 1992, he continued teaching anatomy and began to teach other graduate courses in the Institute of Biology and the Faculty of Medical Sciences at UNICAMP. Over the years, he held many administrative positions at UNICAMP in the Anatomy department, the Center for Biomedical Computer Science (NIB) and as manager of the General Coordination of Data Processing (CGI). His years of leadership and as Chair in the department of Anatomy contributed greatly to improving the Anatomy department, including the vivarium and the research laboratories. With the installation of new technology for the graduation program in the Institute of Biology, he introduced practice classes of Neuroanatomy that instructed students how to use the computers specifically installed for the studies of histological cuts of the central nervous system. Thanks to this technology they were able to design an atlas of the central nervous system that was published by UNICAMP in 1999.
During the period that he was the chair of NIB (1998-2001) he contributed to the restructuring of the "Visible Human Project Mirror Site" for South America and worked to increase availability of access to the images given by the National Library of Medicine in the United States of America, through a deal with NIB and the Centro Nacional de Processamento de Alto Desempenho (CENAPAD). In these four years, he also taught a program to improve the level of training the graduate students received.
In 1998, he transferred to the Physiology and Biophysics Department where he taught Human Physiology to students of Biology, Nursing, and Physical Education. He also lectured on Neurophysiology for Biology and Medicine students. For us that had his classes, it is impossible to forget how he used the tone of his voice to emphasize the most important topics during class.
In 2002, he became a neurobiology reviewer for journals like Brain Research, Neuroscience Letters, Neurochemistry International, and Journal of Neuroscience Methods. Also, in 2002, he obtained the title of "Livre Docente" in the department of Physiology and Biophysics at Unicamp. This is where he worked nonstop until the last days of his life.
Professor Francesco was always worried in developing new educational resources that would improve Neuroscience studies. Thanks to this he received in 2004 CAPES (a support program for research in distance education) award, with the NEUROX© software (specific software for the Neurophysiology studies).
His contribution to the advancement of scientific knowledge included the publishing of many original articles in specialized journals and at national congresses. Also, he participated in many examination boards of Masters, Doctorates, and for other competitions. In 2005, he received two awards from FeSBE (the Federation of Societies for Experimental Biology) thanks to his research on trophic factors and neuronal survival after sciatic axotomy in neonatal rats. During his teaching years, he was responsible for tutoring 45 students, including scientific initiation, masters, and doctorate programs. His tutoring was not restricted to the academic field; it involved a variety of forms, as this was a man always concerned about others. As Francesco said, in his own memorial of "Livre - Docência'': ''De nada vale o conhecimento se não for para o outro'' (Knowledge is worth nothing if it does not help others).
On February 28th, 2009, he was the commencement speaker at the Graduation ceremony for the Biology students of UNICAMP. A short time later he left us, and today, we may consider that unforgettable speech as a golden moment and blessed way of finishing an exceptional career.
Dear Professor Francesco,
Certainly, all of us in the Neurobiology laboratory have kept in our hearts many of the things you have taught us and we will try to apply them in our future lives.
You will be remembered as a professional and friendly man, who was never lacking in perseverance, competency, integrity, and humility. Even when he was in the hospital, he taught us to have optimism and courage in the hardest moments of our lives, and was constantly worried about our academic future. We miss him deeply, but we have great memories of the special person he was to us. We all know that even though his most assuredly outstanding future was cut short, the legacy he has left will be farther reaching than anyone could ever imagine.
Thank you for being part of our lives.
We truly miss you.
Your students
Alexandre César Santos de Rezende; André Schwambach Vieira; Carlos Vinícius Almeida de Assis; César Renato Sartori; Elenice A. de Moraes Ferrari; Fábio Rogério; Gustavo Facchini; Janice Rodrigues Nascimento; Karina Mie Furuzawa; Priscila Ferreira; Raffaela Silvestre Ignarro Departament of Physiology and Biophysics/IB/ Unicamp.
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
22 Sept 2010 -
Date of issue
Feb 2010
