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It is with great sadness that I inform our community of the passing of Professor Bruno Bizzi on October 14, 2023. Born in Milan in 1927, he graduated there in 1952. In 1955, he followed his teacher, Professor Raffaello Breda, to Sassari in Sardinia. In 1960, he held the report on "Open problems and advances in anticoagulant treatments" with Professor Breda at the 17^th Congress of the Italian Society of Hematology, establishing the continuous exchange with the Hematology that has accompanied him throughout his career.In 1965, he took service at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Catholic University in Rome. In the memories of the students in those years, the visit to the patients admitted to the ward was followed by a stop in the hemostasis laboratory, an effective and symbolic demonstration of the close and indissoluble interdependence between the clinic and the laboratory of the discipline.
In 1971, he became chief of the Division of Hematology. In 1972, he was the co-speaker with Professor Breda at the 73rd Congress of the Italian Society of Internal Medicine with the theme of “Fibrinolysis in the Internal Medicine,” with the collaboration of many fellows (Accorrà, De Gaetano, Donati, Fais, Leone, Musumeci, Pola). This was one of the first times that young researchers were called to collaborate on a master reading of this type. He was one of the first to understand the possibilities of fibrinolytic agents in arterial thrombosis and pulmonary embolism and was the first in Europe to experiment in both venous and arterial thromboses urokinase by associating it with heparin. In November 1980, he was appointed full Professor of Medical Therapeutics, keeping his position initially in the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of Naples and afterward in the Faculty of Medicine at the Catholic University in Rome, where he has held the Chair of Medical Semeiotics and then of Medical Pathology until his retirement in 1999.
He was a pioneer in hemostasis and thrombosis studies in Italy, with significant contributions to the development of this discipline through his research on the pathophysiology of hemostasis, fibrinolysis, and hemorrhagic and thrombotic diseases since the late 1950s and then throughout his career. He was among the generation of internists who played a crucial role in the emergence and growth of medical specialties, specifically Hematology.
I can personally attest to his great trust in young people, who enjoyed incredible autonomy and freedom of research in his Institute. He provided means and opportunities with great generosity, allowing the development of roads that did not necessarily coincide with his most prominent scientific interests. These liberal qualities were accompanied by an extremely pleasant and courteous human trait. The aphorism of Gibran perfectly captures his character: The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind. Among his students, he accompanied Giovanni De Gaetano, Maria Benedetta Donati, Raffaele Landolfi, Giuseppe Leone, and myself on the threshold of our minds.

Obituary of Professor Bruno Bizzi