On behalf of the Field Chief Editor of Frontiers in Pharmacology, the University of Catania and his family, it is with great sadness that we announce the passing of speciality chief editor (Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery), Salvatore “Totò” Salomone. 

Salvatore died 15 May 2022, after an extreme fight against the devastating consequences of a cerebral haemorrhage which occurred from the rupture of an aneurysm of the anterior communicating artery about a month ago. Totò was a noble person, with rare gifts of balance and generosity in both his work and his family. He was the perfect friend, always available. He was ready to fill gaps and heal fractures in relationships between people and, in particular, between colleagues and collaborators. 

Graduating in Medicine and Surgery and specializing in Internal Medicine in Catania, he obtained a PhD at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. He carried out a long period of research at the Stroke and Neurovascular Regulation Laboratory of the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA) where he worked as Assistant in Pharmacology. In 1997 he beat the competition as a researcher of Pharmacology and then, in 2007, he became an Associate Professor. On 4 January 2016 he obtained the role of Full Professor in the  Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences of the University of Catania, of which he became Director in 2019. He was also President of the Unifarm Research Centre. 

A refined teacher, he loved teaching and, despite his heavy institutional commitments, he continued to teach tirelessly and to guide young collaborators. A proficient pharmacologist, he was an expert in the therapy of cardiovascular diseases, but in recent years he had also extended his interest to neuroscience becoming the leader of futuristic research lines in this area. The author of nearly two hundred articles published in prestigious journals, he also deposited two sequences in the gene bank. He was a member of the Italian Society of Pharmacology as well as a number of other acclaimed scientific societies including the Société Belge de Physiologie et de Pharmacologie Fondamentales et Cliniques, the European Society for Clinical Investigation, and the British Pharmacological Society. Moreover, Salvatore was the speciality chief editor of Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery within Frontiers in Pharmacology, where he made significant and valued contributions to the journal’s growth and success.  

Gifted with exceptional acumen and intuition, he had an encyclopaedic knowledge that ranged from literature to history and from philosophy to sport. He was a decent person, transparent, but above all else he was kind, sensitive, and possessed a gentle human nature, much appreciated by all his family, friends, and colleagues. All of us who knew and loved Salvatore will always remember him above all for his sweetness. 

The scientific and academic community have lost a remarkable person, but his dear students will be left with the mark of an incomparable teacher who was a true master of both science and life. 

Prof Filippo Drago, University of Catania, Italy