Big milestones in the study of steel corrosion in concrete

Rebar corrosion in concrete has been neglected for a long time in the scientific and technical literature, as reinforced concrete was considered an "eternal" material. Only during the 60s, and more during the 70s and the 80s, several research groups and many corrosion schools gave important contributions. An important impact was also achieved by Italian researchers thanks to the Universities of Roma, Napoli, Ancona, Ferrara, Bergamo, and Politecnico di Milano, where professor Pietro Pedeferri and his school contributed to the study of stainless steel reinforcement, corrosion inhibitors, service life modeling, cathodic protection and cathodic prevention, the latter proposed by Pedeferri in the early 90s. The paper is dedicated to the memory of Pietro Pedeferri (1938-2008) and Luca Bertolini (1966-2017).