Levi was originally a skeptic of Rossi’s claims until he investigated them firsthand.
http://coldfusion3.com/blog/giuseppe-levi-goes-on-record-to-discuss-e-cat
• Levi is a member of the US group the Skeptic’s Society and he applied their “baloney detector kit.” (A set of parameters for the detection of fraud developed by the late Carl Sagan) to the e-cat and found it was not baloney.
• Levi said he investigated the e-cat because it is his duty as a scientist. He also wanted to protect the University of Bologna’s reputation from a possible fraud.