Gian Piero Spada, Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Bologna, Italy, passed away on February 4, 2013, after a long struggle with lung cancer.

Gian Piero Spada was born in Faenza, Italy, in 1956. He studied pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Bologna, graduating in 1980. He spent two years as a postgraduate researcher at the Institute of Chemical Science, University of Bologna, before becoming a research associate in the Department of Organic Chemistry at Bologna. In 1992, Spada became an associate professor in this department, followed by full professor in 2000.

Spada’s research was mainly focused in the field of sterochemistry and supramolecular chemistry. In particular, he devoted most of his research activity to the chiroptic properties and to the self-assembly of guanosines. Spada was an excellent scientist, as testified by the prestigious prize he received from the Italian Chemical Society (Società Chimica Italiana, SCI), the Medaglia Angelo Mangini, in 2012.

• Control of the Helical Chirality of Enantiopure Sulfinyl Z-Azobenzene-Based Photoswitches,
  Irene Núñez, Estíbaliz Merino, Mercedes Lecea, Silvia Pieraccini, Gian Piero Spada, Carlo Rosini, Giuseppe Mazzeo, María Ribagorda, M. Carmen Carreño,
  Chem. Eur. J. 2013.
  DOI: 10.1002/chem.201203243
• Triggering of Guanosine Self-Assembly by Light,
  Stefano Lena, Paolo Neviani, Stefano Masiero, Silvia Pieraccini, Gian Piero Spada,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49(21), 3657–3660.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.201000805
• Dynamers at the Solid–Liquid Interface: Controlling the Reversible Assembly/Reassembly Process between Two Highly Ordered Supramolecular Guanine Motifs,
  Artur Ciesielski, Stefano Lena, Stefano Masiero, Gian Piero Spada, Paolo Samorì,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49(11), 1963–1966.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.200905827