Mariangela Hungria da Cunha

In addition to being one of the most productive Brazilian researchers in the country in the area of ​​Soil Biotechnology, she has been a full member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences since 2008, and has accumulated a series of awards of great national and international relevance throughout her career, among them, the title of Commander of the National Order of Scientific Merit of the Presidency of the Republic for her contribution to Agricultural Sciences.

Mariangela Hungary is an agronomist graduated from Esalq/USP in 1979, with a master’s degree from the same institution in 1981, a doctorate at UFRRJ in 1985 and post-doctorate at  Cornell University in 1989 and  at the University of California – Davis in 1991, and also at the University of Seville (1998). She has been a researcher at Embrapa since 1982 and has been working at Embrapa Soja since 1991. She is a professor and postgraduate advisor in Microbiology and Biotechnology at the State University of Londrina and in the Bioinformatics course at UFTPR. Until then, it has collaborated with the training of more than 200 professionals, including post-doctors, post-graduates and graduates.

As a researcher, Mariangela works mainly in Soil Biotechnology, has more than 700 publications, including scientific works, books, book chapters and technical publications, in addition to being a reviewer for more than 20 nationally and internationally indexed journals. Several of her works were transformed into products of great use for Brazilian agriculture. It has launched more than 20 technologies, including rhizobia for bean crops, Azospirillum for corn, wheat, brachiaria, rhizobia coinoculation and Azospirillum for soybeans and beans. It works with several private partnerships in the development of new microbial inoculants, with several products already registered and commercialized. Recently, Mariangela took over the curatorship of the Microorganism Germplasm Bank for the Production of Microbial Inoculants, approved by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa). She also coordinates the only quarantine station approved by Mapa for microbial inoculants in Brazil.

Mariangela Hungary is a reviewer of more than 20 national and international indexed journals, Brazilian representative in the Ibero-American biofertilizer network Biofag and was vice-president and president of RELARE (Meeting of the Network of Laboratories for the Recommendation, Standardization and Diffusion of Inoculant Technology Microbials of Agricultural Interest), between 2010-2016. She is a consultant for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for biological nitrogen fixation projects in Africa, as well as projects with Argentina, Mexico and Peru, in addition to working on projects in collaboration with Spain, Australia and France. She has been a researcher at CNPq since 1992 and has been at level 1 since 1998. In 2010 she received the “Glaci Zancan Mulheres de Ciência do Paraná” trophy and the “ Honorary Scientist & Advisor on Agricultural Green Technology ” award, from the  Rural Development Administration  (RDA). , Korea). In 2012 she received the Frederico de Menezes Veiga award, from Embrapa, on the theme “Agriculture in the Low Carbon Emission Economy”. In 2015, she was awarded the Claudia Prize, in the science category and, in 2018, with the Medal of Merit for CREA-PR and the National Medal of Merit CONFEA / CREA, in addition to other awards.