He earned a degree in organic chemistry from the University of Pavia in 1925 but his studies were interrupted when he refused to sign a required Fascist oath in 1931, and he worked at several small pharmaceutical concerns for the next ten years, until the outbreak of World War II.
[2] At the onset of war, Dr. Gorini avoided conscription and fled to Milan, where he adopted a false identity, naming himself after nineteenth century Italian rebel and philosopher Carlo Cattaneo, and worked for the Resistance.
[2] After the war, the couple managed a former Fascist summer camp in Selvino, which they turned into a recuperative rehabilitation center for orphans who had survived concentration camps, restoring the physical and mental health of about a thousand children who were sent to settle in Mandatory Palestine; for this work they were honored by Yad Vashem in 1976.
[1][2] The couple then resumed their individual scientific careers in Paris, where Luigi's research in microbiology at the Sorbonne earned him the Kronauer Prize from the Faculté des Sciences, in 1949.
[2][3] In addition to his scientific career, Dr. Gorini continued his advocacy of progressive causes, speaking out against racism and the Vietnam War.