Daniel Bovet

Pharmacologist, born in Neuchâtel, W Switzerland. He studied chemistry at Geneva, and conducted research at the Pasteur Institute in Paris (1929–47), where he developed the first antihistamine drug and the first synthetic muscle-relaxants, for which he was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. In 1947 he emigrated to Italy, where later he was appointed professor of psychology at the University of Rome (1971–82).

Daniel Bovet (March 23, 1907 – April 8, 1992) was a Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of drugs that block the actions of specific neurotransmitters. He was one of the few people who learned Esperanto as a first language.He graduated from the University of Geneva in 1927 and received his doctorate in 1929. He then moved in 1947 to the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Superior Institute of Health) in Rome. In 1964, he became a professor in at the University of Sassari in Italy. From 1969 to 1971, he was the head of the National Research Council in Rome before stepping down to become a professor at the University of Rome La Sapienza.