Johanna Döbereiner

Johanna Liesbeth Kubelka Döbereiner (28 November 1924 – 5 October 2000) was a Brazilian agronomist.

Johanna Döbereiner
Born(1924-11-28)28 November 1924
Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia
Died5 October 2000(2000-10-05) (aged 75)
Seropédica, Brazil
NationalityBrazilian
AwardsUNESCO Science Prize (1989)
Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit
Premio México de Ciencia y Tecnología (1992)

Biography

Döbereiner was born in Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia on the 28 November 1924.[1] Her family were German Czechoslovakians from Aussig in Bohemia (at that time was Austria–Hungary Empire and now is Czech Republic),[2] who left the country after World War II. Her father was Professor Paul Kubelka. Her name Döbereiner came from her husband Jürgen Döbereiner, who she met in Munich. Interestingly, her name became similar to the famous chemist Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner, who was born in Hof, Bavaria, in the border with Bohemia.

Johanna Döbereiner received her degree from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, but settled in Brazil and became a Brazilian citizen in 1956. Her early work includes studies of Azospirillum and other bacteria that could be useful to Brazilian soil.[3] She later played an important role in Brazil's soybean production by encouraging a reliance on varieties that solely depended on biological nitrogen fixation.[4]

As a consequence of her research and ideas, numerous soybean plantations in Brazil are now completely supplied for nitrogen (N) by rhizobia and not using any N-fertilizers.[5] This movement has had big benefits, because Brazil, together with the U.S., are the main producers of soybean in the world (ca. 50% world production).[6] Considering that soybeans are one of the most important global sources of protein (mainly fed to animals that in turn becomes animal protein for human consumption), this implies that significant amount of global protein comes from an ecological biological process without the use of industrial chemical fertilizers.

This was one of the reasons that Johanna Döbereiner was indicated for the Nobel Prize in the 1990s.[7]

The Johanna Döbereiner Biological Resources Center was named in her honour in 2017.[8]

See also

References
  1. "Women Pioneers in Plant Biology". American Society of Plant Biologists. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  2. "Quem foi Johanna Döbereiner". Retrieved 2019-04-19.
  3. "History of discovery of N2-fixing organisms, UCLA" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 9, 2010. Retrieved 2012-04-14.
  4. Baldani, J.I.; et al. (2002). "Johanna Döbereiner Memorial Lecture". In Finan, Turlough M.; et al. (eds.). Nitrogen Fixation: Global Perspectives : Proceedings of the 13th International Congress on Nitrogen Fixation, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 2-7 July 2001. CABI Publishing. p. 3. ISBN 9781845933357.
  5. "Brazil farmers plant legumes as mini fertilizer factories". Retrieved 2019-04-16.
  6. "Brazil large soy producer". Retrieved 2019-04-16.
  7. "When will Brazil have a Nobel Prize". Retrieved 2019-04-16.
  8. "Biological resource center is inaugurated in Rio de Janeiro". www.embrapa.br. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
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