Domenico Marotta (1886-1974) was born in Palermo to Ignazio, a printer, and Concetta Corteggiani. He studied at liceo Garibaldi and earned a degree in chemistry and pharmacy from the University of Palermo in 1910. During a cholera epidemic that same year, he worked at the municipal chemical laboratory monitoring water and food safety.
In 1911, Marotta moved to Rome to work at the university’s chemical institute. He obtained his teaching credentials in 1916 and became a founding member of the Italian Chemical Association in 1919. He organized Rome’s first International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry conference in 1920 and eventually won a professorship at the University of Florence.
In 1935, Marotta was appointed director of the Istituto Superiore di Sanita, a position he maintained through World War II and beyond. His organizational abilities attracted Nobel laureates Ernst Boris Chain and Daniel Bovet to Rome, establishing it as a major pharmacology research center. He founded the International Center of Chemistry and Biology.
Marotta retired with honors on July 29, 1961. However, on April 8, 1964, he was arrested for embezzlement and falsifying documents. Though the scientific community defended him internationally, the case damaged Italian science, with both Nobel laureates eventually leaving the country.