Pier Luigi Nervi was an Italian engineer. He studied at the University of Bologna and qualified in 1913. Dr. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at Rome University from 1946-61. He is widely known as a structural engineer and an architect, and for his innovative use of reinforced concrete. He was born on June 21, 1891 in Sondrio, Italy. Nervi graduated from the University of Bologna in 1913. During World War I he served as a lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers of the Italian army, and after the war he worked as an engineer in Bologna and Florence. In 1926–27 he designed his first significant work, a cinema in Naples, and followed it with the municipal stadium in Florence, built in 1930–32. Pier Luigi Nervi was awarded Gold Medals by the Institution of Structural Engineers, the American Institute of Architects (AIA Gold Medal 1964), and the RIBA. He was also awarded the Frank P. Brown Medal of The Franklin Institute in 1957. He died on January 9, 1979 in Rome, Italy.