Giorgio Nebbia
Ciusa Walter (1906-1989) was the son of Richard Ciusa (1877-1965), a pupil of Giacomo Ciamician, professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Bari from 1922 to 1960 (he was rightly a road headed to Bari in the "neighborhood of the professors"). His son Walter, a graduate in Chemistry, has been assistant (then still existed) of commodities in Bari from 1928 to 1931 when the Institute was directed by Joseph Testoni (1877-1957) and his father wanted him to continue his university career in Bologna, in a university other than where he taught
A Bari Walter Ciusa returned as a professor in 1947. These were tumultuous years, reconstruction of the destroyed by the war, but also of great hope, the Institute of Commodity was in the attic of the building of the Faculty, in Largo Fraccacreta, which is now the registrar, in the sea, with the Rooms flooded with sunlight, and chemical laboratory still had traces of occupation by the British army who had used after the Liberation of Bari in 1943 for their analysis.
magazines were few, even if the library had more books and valuable collections gathered by teachers who had succeeded in teaching Commodity from 1886 onwards, there was a rich museum merchandise, the equipment was antiquated, and some were even those who had used Ciusa assistant, years before. The staff was just an assistant, Adam Joseph, a "technician", Francesco Di Taranto, a "janitor" (makes me smile using such antiquated terms, a university that has now disappeared, but was far behind) - - all people who have disappeared for many years --- and a couple of students.
Yet even in those conditions luck Ciusa, with two fundamental texts, published in 1948 and in 1954 --- "The production cycles and chemical fundamentals" and "technical and economic aspects of some production processes" - - now sadly unavailable, a printed turning point in the Commodity. This discipline, taught mostly by chemists in the Faculty of Economic Studies, for many decades had run aground in the mere description of the goods; Ciusa indicated that it would rather devote to the analysis of the "production cycle", understood as a process of transformation natural resources into marketable products, to study on their balance sheets of matter and energy, with particular reference to the role that the reuse of waste and by-products and has had in stimulating technological innovation. With this setting, the prof. Ciusa anticipated problems that would become central, a few decades later, in studies that would be called "environmental".
Among the many experimental research in the field closely merchandise can remember those conducted at Bari Ciusa by fluorimetric analysis on new methods to uncover fraud, which were rampant in the fifties of the twentieth century, many commercial products, including oils olive oil from Puglia.
Ciusa was later named as Professor of Commodity Economics at the University of Bologna, where he remained until retirement. Professor Emeritus, gold medal worthy of culture, a member of several scientific academies including the Science of Bari, Puglia and the Sciences in Bologna, deserves to be remembered for many contributions to avant-garde, as an interesting and original analysis of "Value" of goods, especially foodstuffs, based on the chemical and energy, again anticipating the research value in physical units, which would be addressed by many others in subsequent years. In some studies, also Ciusa discovered and described the role of vitamin B1 in the transmethylation processes, with special regard to the biological role of methyl and free radicals, have become so fashionable today.
As a teacher prof. Ciusa has encouraged and supported with great generosity, including staff, youth workers and assistants, many of whom have subsequently covered professorships at the Universities of Bologna, Bari, Pisa, Pescara, Lecce e altre . Come pochi altri studiosi ha sempre incoraggiato le ricerche dei suoi allievi anche in campi “eterodossi” rispetto agli orientamenti tradizionali della Merceologia. Essendo stato suo assistente per molti anni, posso ben testimoniare il sostegno ricevuto nelle ricerche in campi come l’utilizzazione dell’energia solare e la dissalazione delle acque, temi che molti ritenevano estranei alla Merceologia; sarebbe stato necessario aspettare gli anni recenti per vedere riconosciuta l’importanza dei concetti di “merce-energia” e di ”merce-acqua” che Ciusa aveva anticipato decenni fa.
Nel suo lavoro il prof. Ciusa ha sempre prestato grande attenzione agli aspetti storici dei fenomeni di produzione e consumo delle merci. Nel 1961 ha fondato la Società Italiana di Merceologia. Gran parte degli scritti di questo importante studioso sono stati pazientemente raccolti nell’archivio biblioteca di storia contemporanea della Fondazione Micheletti di Brescia www.fondazionemicheletti.it www.musil.bs.it.
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