Biography of Giorgio Piccardi

Piero Faraone, Vice President of C.I.F.A.

Giorgio Piccardi (Florence, October 13th, 1895 - Riccione, December 22th, 1972) began
his studies in chemistry in his hometown of Florence in 1913, at age 18. The World War I, however,
forced him to stop being sent to the front as an officer in the Italian Alpine Corp. Was decorated and
discharged in 1919.
Returning to Florence completed his university degree in chemistry started his university
career, he became a lecturer in physical chemistry in 1926.
Through the competition, he became professor of physical chemistry, to University of
Genoa in 1938.
At the same university he founded the Institute of Physical Chemistry with attached
Spectroscopy Laboratory where he worked in atomic and molecular spectra of rare earths.
The outbreak of World War II prompted him to return to Tuscany, where he worked at the
University of Florence. In 1945 he was called to the Chair of Chemistry and Physics in the same
city where she founded the Institute of Physical Chemistry which he directed until 1965. Directed
the school to the study of interfaces and surface phenomena with consequent applications in the
biological field. He studies on the chemical structure and spectroscopy with applications in
industrial and archeology.
Special attention devoted to the field of fluctuating phenomena identified and deepened in
studies that saw him engaged at an international level, creating its specific methods of investigation
which revealed the genius and promoted true pioneer in such research. Succeeded in founding the
University Center for the Study of Fluctuating Phenomena (the CUFF), which was connected to
other similar in other foreign countries with whom he collaborated actively. Searches based on his
methods, were made all over the world and even in the Arctic and Antarctica.
After 1951 his scientific especially regarding the Floating Phenomena with the chemical
tests that he designed. These studies lasted for twenty years, led him to formulate a sentence very
suggestive: "Heterogeneous systems, out of balance and sufficiently complex, respond to any

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external signal even on the smallest energy." The interest that most of the chemical reactions and
biological processes. He had for his studies of national and international awards.
He founded and became President of C.I.F.A. (International Committee for the Study of
the Phenomena of the Environment) in 1969, officially recognized placing the headquarters in
Brussels under the auspices of the University of the same city.
Piccardi developed his scientific work bearing witness to more than 200 publications and a
monograph published in the USA and Russia ("The chemical basis of medical climatology").
He was active until 1972, the year he missed us all.

Publications by Giorgio Piccardi over activation of water and correlated phenomena:

"Sopra un nuovo fenomeno di natura elettrica e sopra un nuovo effetto presentato dai
metalli", Gazzetta Chimica Italiana, vol. 68, 1938, pag. 246-263.
"Sulla precipitazione del carbonato di calcio da acqua dura attivata ("T" od "R") e
normale", Gazzetta Chimica Italiana, vol. 68, 1938, pag. 287-291 (with Maria Letizia
Corsi).
"Sulla tensione superficiale dell'acqua attivata "T"", Gazzetta Chimica Italiana, vol. 68,
1938, pag. 471-473 (with Eugenio Fabrini and Maria Letizia Corsi).
"Influenza dell'attivazione "T" ed "R" sui colloidi d'oro", Gazzetta Chimica Italiana, vol. 69,
1939, pag. 609-614 (with Edmondo Botti).
"Influenza dell'attivazione ("T" ed "R") sul trisolfuro di arsenico colloidale", Gazzetta
Chimica Italiana, vol 69, 1939, pag. 722-730.
"Nuovi effetti chimici e biologci dell'acqua attivata "T" ed "R"", La Chimica e l'Industria,
n7, 1939, pag. 455-457.
"Sulla disincrostazione fisica delle caldaie e su di una relazione fra fenomeni ambientali ed
alcuni fenomeni chimico-fisici", Tecnica Italiana, n5, 1951 september-october.
"Sulla disincrostazione delle caldaie", L'Imbottigliamento, n3, luglio 1958, pag. 27-38.
" Sugli spettri d'arco delle miscele neodimio-samario", A. Gatterer, J. Junkes, L. Rolla, G.
Piccardi, Pontificia Academia Scientiarum, 1942.

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