Primo Michele Levi (31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was a Jewish-Italian chemist, partisan, writer, and Holocaust survivor. He is renowned for his poignant works that bear witness to the Holocaust, including his time as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Levi's literature spans several genres, encompassing books, collections of short stories, essays, poems, and one novel. His most celebrated works include If This Is a Man (1947), a harrowing account of his year-long captivity at Auschwitz, and The Periodic Table (1975), a novel comprised of autobiographical short stories each named after a chemical element, which reflects its role in the narrative. The Royal Institution acclaimed The Periodic Table as the best science book ever written.

Levi's life ended under tragic circumstances on 11 April 1987, when he succumbed to injuries from a fall from a third-story apartment landing. While officially ruled a suicide, the circumstances surrounding his death remain a subject of debate, with some suggesting the fall could have been accidental. During his imprisonment at Monowitz, one of the three main Auschwitz camps, Levi was one of the mere twenty survivors from the 650 Italian Jews in his transport. The legacy of Primo Levi continues through initiatives like the Primo Levi Center, dedicated to the study of Italian Jewry's history and culture.