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".

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