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

agronomist An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the U ...

Biography

Döbereiner was born in

Ústí nad Labem Ústí nad Labem (, , ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 92,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of its eponymous region and district. It is a major industrial centre and, besides being an active river port, is an important railway ju ...

, Czechoslovakia on the 28 November 1924. Her family were German Czechoslovakians from Aussig in Bohemia (at that time was Austria–Hungary Empire and now is

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. Th ...

), who left the country after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. 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 Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner (13 December 1780 – 24 March 1849) was a German chemist who is best known for work that foreshadowed the periodic law for the chemical elements, and for inventing the first lighter, which was known as the Döbere ...

, who was born in

Hof, Bavaria Hof () is a town on the banks of the Saale in the northeastern corner of the German state of Bavaria, in the Franconian region, at the Czech border and the forested Fichtelgebirge and Frankenwald upland regions. The town has 47,296 inhabitants, ...

, in the border with Bohemia. Johanna Döbereiner received her degree from the

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: link=no, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of ...

, 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. She later played an important role in Brazil's

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu ...

production by encouraging a reliance on varieties that solely depended on biological nitrogen fixation. 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. 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). 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 The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...

in the 1990s. The Johanna Döbereiner Biological Resources Center was named in her honour in 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobereiner, Johanna 1924 births 2000 deaths People from Ústí nad Labem Czechoslovak emigrants to Brazil Brazilian agronomists Brazilian women scientists Brazilian scientists Sudeten German people Women agronomists TWAS fellows 20th-century women scientists Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Recipients of the National Order of Scientific Merit (Brazil) Naturalized citizens of Brazil 20th-century agronomists

Biography

See also

References