Two Brazilian Scientists Named to Time’s 2026 List of the 100 Most Influential People

Overview

• Time included microbiologist Mariangela Hungria and geneticist Luciano Moreira on its 2026 list, a dual recognition of Brazilian scientists that national outlets describe as unprecedented.
• Hungria’s Embrapa-led work created a soybean seed inoculant that replaces synthetic nitrogen fertilizer by using selected bacteria to fix nitrogen in the soil, with Time reporting about 85% adoption in Brazil.
• Time estimates her innovations save Brazilian farmers about US$25 billion each year and prevent 230 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
• Moreira’s program releases Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia, a natural bacterium that blocks viruses inside the insect, with deployments in 16 cities and studies reporting up to 89% drops in dengue in some municipalities.
• Brazil now treats the Wolbachia method as a dengue control tool supported by the world’s largest mosquito factory in Curitiba, signaling ongoing scale-up across more urban areas.