Johanna Döbereiner

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Johanna Döbereiner

Johanna Liesbeth Döbereiner , b. Kubelka (born November 28, 1924 in Ústí nad Labem (Aussig), † October 5, 2000 in Seropédica ) was a Brazilian agricultural scientist of German-Czech origin. Her research results in the field of biotic nitrogen fixation were the basis for more efficient soybean production in Brazil and contributed to making the country the second most important soybean producer in the world.

Live and act

Döbereiner was born in Aussig in 1924 and grew up in Prague. In Prague her father Paul Kubelka worked as a teacher at the German University. During the Second World War , at the age of 17, she began to work in childcare and then in agriculture. Contact with her parents and grandparents was rarely possible. In 1945 her family was expelled from Czechoslovakia as Sudeten Germans . Döbereiner then worked on farms in Germany and from 1947 studied agricultural science at the University of Munich . In 1950 she completed her studies as an agricultural engineer . In the same year she emigrated to Brazil with her husband, the veterinarian Jürgen Döbereiner. In 1956 she became a Brazilian citizen.

In 1951 Döbereiner took a position in the research department of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture (today Embrapa ) in Rio de Janeiro , where she worked in the field of soil microbiology . In 1951 she published her first scientific paper, in which she described the effects of covering vegetables on the population of soil bacteria. In 1958 she and her team identified the nitrogen-binding rhizosphere bacterium Beijerinckia fluminensis . In 1966 she discovered the bacterium Azotobacter paspali , which lives on the root surface of grasses that grew on the Embrapa campus.

In 1963 she obtained a Master of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin with a thesis on Manganese toxicity in Rhizobium-bean symbiosis (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) .

Döbereiner's research focus was on the agricultural use of nitrogen-binding bacteria instead of nitrogen fertilizers, which is associated with a reduction in production costs and environmental pollution. In the 1960s, she convinced the organizers of the Brazilian soy breeding program to select the types of soy used solely on the basis of the possibility of biotic nitrogen fixation. This fact enabled Brazil to become the second most important soybean producer. Your soy growth accelerator replaces $ 2.5 billion worth of fertilizer annually.

Döbereiner was a founding member of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) in 1981 and belonged to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences since 1978 and to the Academia Brasileira de Ciências since 1977 , of which she became vice-president in 1995.

She published over 370 articles in scientific journals. A 1997 study by Folha de S. Paulo found Döbereiner to be the most cited female scientist in Brazil and one of the 10 percent most cited Brazilian scientists overall.

Döbereiner died on October 5, 2000 of complications from Alzheimer's .

Awards (selection)

Dedication names

Publications (selection)

  • Limitations and potentials for biological nitrogen fixation in the tropics. Plenum Press, New York 1978, ISBN 0306365103 .
  • Nitrogen-fixing bacteria in nonleguminous crop plants. Madison, Wis. : Science Tech Publishers, Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 0910239118 .
  • Evaluation of nitrogen fixation in legumes by the regression of total plant nitrogen with nodule weight. in Nature , 210, 1996, pp. 850-852.
  • with JFW von Bulow: Potential for nitrogen fixation in maize genotypes in Brazil. in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 72, 1975, pp. 2389-2393.

literature

  • JI Baldani, VLD Baldani, VM Reis: Johanna Döbereiner: fifty years dedicated to the biological nitrogen fixation research Area in Nitrogen Fixation: Global Perspectives: Proceedings of the 13th International Congress on Nitrogen Fixation, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 2-7 July 2001 . Turlough M. Finan, CABI Publishing, 2002, ISBN 0851995918 , pp 3-4.
  • AA Franco, RM Boddey: Dr Johanna Döbereiner: A brief biography. Soil Biology and Biochemistry: 29 (5), May 1997, ix-xi.
  • C. Pavan: Johanna Döbereiner in: Science and the Future of Mankind. Pontificiae Academiae Scientiarvm, Vatican City 2001, ISBN 88-7761-075-1 , pp. 50-52 ( online ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b C. Pavan: Johanna Döbereiner. in: Science and the future of Mankind, pp. 50-52.
  2. ↑ Carl D. Goerdeler: Bacteria on the advance - Brazil's Green Revolution and its silent instigator ( Memento of July 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 95 kB) Tópicos 3/2003, accessed on July 30, 2012.
  3. ↑ a b Johanna Döbereiner ccc.gob.mx, accessed on July 30, 2012.
  4. ↑ a b J. I. Baldani, VLD Baldani, VM Reis: Johanna Döbereiner: fifty years dedicated to the biological nitrogen fixation research area in Nitrogen Fixation: Global Perspectives: Proceedings of the 13th International Congress on Nitrogen Fixation, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 2- 7 July 2001. pp. 3-4.
  5. ↑ a b Ralf Südhoff: The breadwinner of the world. Zeit Online, May 4, 2006, accessed July 30, 2012.
  6. ↑ a b c d Johanna Liesbeth Kubelka Döbereiner casinapioiv.va, accessed on July 31, 2012.
  7. ↑ Johanna Döbereiner canalciencia.ibict.br, accessed on 30 July 2012 found.
  8. ↑ Honorary Degree Recipients ( Memento from December 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) president.ufl.edu, accessed on July 30, 2012.
  9. ↑ Ceremony of Award of four UNESCO Science Prizes (PDF; 1.7 MB) unesdoc.unesco.org, November 8, 1989, accessed on July 30, 2012.
  10. ↑ Achim Wüsthof: The green miracle of São Paulo Zeit Online, June 30, 2005, accessed on July 30, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Döbereiner, Johanna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kubelka, Johanna Liesbeth (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Brazilian agronomist
DATE OF BIRTH November 28, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Ústí nad Labem
DATE OF DEATH October 5, 2000
Place of death Seropédica