José Reis (scientist), Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

José Reis (scientist)

Brazilian scientist

Date of Birth: 12-Jun-1907

Place of Birth: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Date of Death: 16-May-2002

Profession: scientist, writer, physician, popular science

Nationality: Brazil

Zodiac Sign: Gemini


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About José Reis (scientist)

  • José Reis (June 12, 1907 – May 16, 2002) was a noted Brazilian scientist, journalist, scientific leader and science writer. Reis was born in Rio de Janeiro, the eleventh of thirteen children.
  • He attended secondary school at Colégio D.
  • Pedro II, and, on leaving school in 1924, was awarded the "Pantheon" prize, conferred on the best students of Colégio D.
  • Pedro II.
  • He went on to study medicine at the University of Brazil's National Faculty of Medicine (presently Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) from 1925.
  • During his medical course, he studied pathology at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz.
  • After graduation, he worked from 1928 to 1929 at the Institute as a bacteriologist, having decided to specialize in scientific research in virology.
  • For his achievements there, he received the Oswaldo Cruz Medal.
  • As a result, he accepted an invitation to move to São Paulo in the next year and work at the Instituto Biológico (Biological Institute), an applied research center set up by the state government, in the section of bacteriology.
  • Later, he studied at the Rockefeller Institute in New York City, United States, from 1935 to 1936. Returning to Brazil, Dr.
  • Reis resumed his work at the Biological Institute.
  • Under the instigation of the Institute's director, the German biologist Hermann von Ihering, to study a mysterious viral disease afflicting chicken producers in the state, he became gradually a renowned world expert on ornithopathology (avian diseases) and eventually was nominated director of the Institute.
  • He felt also the urge to write pamphlets and booklets in a simple language, in order to instruct the agriculturists of the state on how to prevent and fight this and other diseases, and soon started to contribute regularly to a specialized magazine in this field, "Chácaras & Quintais". In 1947, Dr.
  • José Reis, who now displayed a marvelous talent for explaining scientific concepts for laypeople, started a parallel career as a journalist, first by writing a science column at one of the town's two most important newspapers, the Folha de S.Paulo.
  • He maintained this column for the next 55 years, until shortly before his death, probably a world record for a science newspaper columnist.
  • The column was syndicated to many other newspapers.
  • He also dabbed in general journalism, and became one of the editors-in-chief at the Folha from 1962 to 1968, during the critical years of the military régime which was installed in April 1964 in Brazil. As a scientific leader, Reis was exceedingly important for the history of Brazilian science and technology, as one of the founders of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC), in 1949, together with other important scientific personalities of the country, such as Jorge Americano, Paulo Sawaya, Maurício Rocha e Silva, Gastão Rosenfeld, Wilson Teixeira Beraldo, José Ribeiro do Vale and others .
  • He was also the founder and the editor-in-chief for almost his entire life of "Ciência e Cultura", SBPC's official journal. Reis received many national and international prizes, awards and honours, such as the Jonh R.
  • Reitermeyer Award, granted by the Inter-American Press Society and the Panamerican Press Union in 1964; and the prestigious Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science by UNESCO (United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture).
  • In his honour, the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq) instituted in 1978 the José Reis Science Communication Award.
  • His name is honoured also in the Núcleo José Reis de Divulgação Científica, a research and education centre at the School of Communication and Arts of the University of São Paulo. Reis continued his work at Folha de S.Paulo until his death in São Paulo; he died of complications of multiple pneumonia in 2002, at 94 years of age.
  • His latest work, Ética e Divulgação Científica: Os Desafios do Novo Século (Ethic and Cientific Divulgation: The Challenges of the New Century), fifth in the Science Popularization Series, was published in the same year.

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