Felice Ippolito (16 November 1915 – 24 April 1997) was an Italian geologist, politician and engineer. He was a fiery promoter of the development of nuclear energy in Italy. His daughter is the actress

Angelica Ippolito Angelica Ippolito (born 8 September 1944) is an Italian stage, film and television actress. Life and career Born in Naples to geologist Felice Ippolito and writer and playwright Isabella Quarantotti. Her mother married thirdly to actor and pla ...

Biography

Born in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, Ippolito graduated in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

with a specialization in geology in 1938, and in 1950 he became Professor of Applied Geology at the

University of Naples Federico II The University of Naples Federico II (; , ) is a public university, public research university in Naples, Campania, Italy. Established in 1224 and named after its founder, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, it is the oldest public, s ...

.Giuseppe Sircana. "IPPOLITO, Felice".
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 62
'.

Treccani Institute Giovanni Treccani for the publication of the Italian Encyclopedia (), also known as Treccani Institute or simply Treccani, is a cultural institution of national interest, active in the publishing field, founded by Giovanni Treccani ...

, 2004. Interested in the use of civil nuclear energy because of his research on

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

as a geologist, in 1952 he became General Secretary for the use of nuclear energy, became in 1960 the (CNEN), the predecessor of ENEA. In this role, he contributes to various projects including establishing the

Latina Latina or Latinas most often refers to: * Latinas, a demographic group in the United States * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America. *Latin Americans Latina and Latinas may also refer ...

Trino Trino () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Vercelli in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about southwest of Vercelli, at the foot of the Montferrat hills. Trino borders the following municipalit ...

and

Garigliano The Garigliano () is a river in central Italy. It forms at the confluence of the rivers Gari (also known as the Rapido) and Liri. Garigliano is actually a deformation of "Gari-Lirano" (which in Italian means something like "Gari from the Liri" ...

nuclear power plants. In December 1955, he was among the founders of the

Italian Radical Party The Italian Radical Party (), also known as the Historical Radical Party (''Partito Radicale storico''), was a political party in Italy. Heir of the Historical Far Left and representative of Italy's political left in its beginning, with the ...

. In August 1963 an Ippolito case about a supposed maladministration of the CNEN broke in the newspapers. Ippolito was arrested in 1964 and sentenced to 11 years in prison. The case was widely considered a scapegoat to block nuclear power in favour of the nascent Italian oil industry, and it has also been associated with the mysterious death of

Enrico Mattei Enrico Mattei (; 29 April 1906 – 27 October 1962) was an Italian public administrator. After World War II, he was given the task of dismantling the Italian petroleum agency Agip, a state enterprise established by Fascist Italy. Instead, Ma ...

in 1962. Ippolito was pardoned by

Giuseppe Saragat Giuseppe Saragat (; 19 September 1898 – 11 June 1988) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as President of Italy from 1964 to 1971. Early life Saragat was born on 19 September 1898 in Turin, Piedmont, Kingdom of Italy, to Sard ...

after two years in prison. In 1968, Ippolito founded the magazine ''

Le Scienze ''Le Scienze'' (''The Sciences'') is an Italian monthly science magazine, It is the Italian edition of'' Scientific American''. History and profile Published monthly since 1968, ''Le Scienze'' was founded by industrial Alberto Mondadori and sci ...

'', the Italian version of ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

''. Between 1979 and 1989, he was an

Independent Left The Independent Left (, GI) was a French parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies of France of the French Third Republic during the interwar period. It was not a political party but a technical group formed by independents and parties too sma ...

(''Sinistra indipendente''; SI) MEP, elected on the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...

list.

References

External links

Felice Ippolito MEP Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ippolito, Felice 1915 births 1997 deaths Engineers from Naples 20th-century Italian geologists MEPs for Italy 1979–1984 MEPs for Italy 1984–1989 Italian Communist Party politicians Radical Party (Italy) politicians University of Naples Federico II alumni Academic staff of the University of Naples Federico II Politicians from Naples Italian science communicators