Maria Bianca Cita Sironi passed away on August 12 2024 at the age of 99. She will remain forever in our hearts, in our memories, and she will accompany forever our professional life as marine geoscientists.

Maria Bianca Cita Sironi was Emeritus Professor at the University of Milan since 1998. Formerly she was a professor of Micropaleontology (1955-1973), Full Professor of Micropaleontology(1973-1978), Geology (1978-1994) and Marine Geology (1994-1997) at the University of Milan.

In 1942, Maria Bianca Cita Sironi was the first student to enroll in the newly established Degree Course in Geological Sciences at the University of Milan obtaining (first graduate) the degree in July 1946 with a maximum score of 110/110 cum laude. She later began an outstanding scientific career as geologist, micropaleontologist, stratigrapher and sedimentologist that led her to become the first woman President of the Italian Geological Society (1989-1990), Director of the Department of Earth Science of the University of Milano, and Member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. In 1994, she was awarded the F.P. Shepard Medal of the Society for Sedimentary Geology for “Excellence in Marine Geology”. From 2004 to 2008 she was President of the International Subcommittees for Neogene Stratigraphy and Stratigraphic Classification, within the International Commission on Stratigraphy of the IUGS.

Maria Bianca Cita Sironi engaged with scientific ocean drilling in 1968 when she was invited to participate (first non-US scientist and one of the first two women scientists onboard) as a Paleontologist in DSDP Leg 2 on the Glomar Challenger contributing to the confirmation of the theory of sea-floor spreading in the central Atlantic Ocean.

Later she joined DSDP Legs 13 and 42 in the Mediterranea Sea, where she contributed together with Bill Ryan and Ken Hsu to the formulation of the theory of Mediterranean desiccation during the Messinian salinity crisis by documenting studying the deep marine depositional environment of the foraminiferal microfaunas contained in the sediments deposited immediately after the end of the salinity crisis. The milestone publication ‘Late Miocene Desiccation of the Mediterranean’, By K.J.Hsu, W.B.F. Ryan and M.B.Cita (Nature, Vol. 242, 1973) introduced in the scientific debate two extraordinary processes in the recent geological evolution of the Mediterranean Sea that are still not universally accepted today: 1) that the level of the Mediterranean Sea has dropped well beyond the eustatic variations during the evaporitic phase,  and 2) that the end of the salinity crisis occurred abruptly due to a flood across the Gibraltar Strait. A theory that has left its mark on the scientific community, on future generations of researchers, and on public opinion.

With the opening of DSDP to international participation (International Phase of Ocean Drilling (IPOD) in 1975, Maria Bianca became one of the most active players in promoting the participation of European countries beyond France, Germany and UK. The opportunity came with the birth of the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), when the so called ‘small European countries’ formed the European Science Foundation (ESF) Consortium for Ocean Drilling (ECOD), gathering five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) and seven other countries (Belgium, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey). Maria Bianca Cita succeeded in identifying the financial resources of CNR that made Italy the largest contributor of ECOD. She was the Italian representative in ESCO (ESF Science Committee for the ODP) from 1986 to 1996,  ESCO Chair  from 1989 to 1992, with the Secretariat located at the University of Milano, member of PCOM (the ODP Planning Committee) from 1989 to 1992. If the Italian scientific community had and still has the privilege to participate in scientific ocean drilling programs, it owes it largely to Maria Bianca Cita.

We will miss Maria Bianca’s skills, passion, dedication, and unselfish support of the careers of many young scientists.

Maria Bianca Cita Sironi, 1924 – 2024. In this photo on board research vessel Gelendzhik in the Mediterranean Sea in the year 1993, participating in the Training Through Research (TTR-3) Program. Photo R.G. Lucchi