Born: 28 November 1924, Czechia
Died: 5 October 2000
Country most active: Brazil
Also known as: Johanna Liesbeth Kubelka
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
Czech botanist Johanna Döbereiner moved to Brazil in 1951, where she would work for the Research Department of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture (now Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, or EMBRAPA) for almost 50 years. Döbereiner pioneered the study of how plants and microbes interact, such as how certain bacteria can promote plant growth. In particular, she was interested in nitrogen fixation, a process by which nitrogen is joined with other molecules to create compounds like ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria, like Azorhizophilus, can produce substances that are beneficial to the plants that share their soil.
It was not until the 1970s that two major events enabled Döbereiner to make significant leaps in her research. First, the petroleum crisis caused the cost of chemical fertilizer to increase dramatically, creating demand for alternative options to promote plant growth. Around the same time, the acetylene reduction assay (ARA) was developed as a relatively simple detection system to determine biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) activity. Using the ARA and a semi-solid medium developed by Döbereiner and her students, many Brazilian crops tested positive for activity, indicating the presence of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. With further research in the 1980s, she was able to show the connection with the bacteria. Her work significantly reduced Brazil’s dependence on chemical fertilizer, saving billions of dollars annually as well as reducing the harmful effects of such fertilizers on the environment. Another outcome was that Brazil became the second largest grower of soy in the world, after the U.S., making the country a major force in the agricultural global market.
In addition to the many awards and other forms of recognition she received, Döbereiner was the most cited female Brazilian scientist in academia at the time of her death in 2000.