Raffaello Nasini (Siena, 1854 – Roma, 1931) was a Tuscan chemist and Senator of the Kingdom who earned honorary doctorates from Cambridge and Glasgow. He studied under the renowned Stanislao Cannizzaro, completing his degree in Rome before studying in Berlin with Hans Heinrich Landolt.
His academic career included a professorship at Padua starting in 1891, where he served as rector from 1900-1905. He later moved to Pisa until 1924 and directed the school of pharmacy there.
Nasini’s research focused on relationships between structure and properties of organic compounds. He also pursued significant work in applied chemistry, investigating natural gases, boric acid springs, and mineral waters. His contributions substantially modernized the technical and scientific direction of Italy’s chemical industry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
In 1929, during the Fascist regime, he received a Senate appointment.
“The first relationships between academic chemists and the economic world date to 1895. Raffaello Nasini, who was most engaged on this front, began studying the boric springs of Larderello with funds provided by an entrepreneur interested in their industrial exploitation.”