Gabrielle Howard | |
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| Born | Gabrielle Louise Caroline Matthaei (1876-10-03)3 October 1876 Kensington, London, England |
| Died | 18 August 1930(1930-08-18) (aged 53) |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Spouse | Albert Howard |
| Relatives | Louise Howard (sister) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Plant physiology |
Gabrielle Louise Caroline Howard (néeMatthaei; 3 October 1876 – 18 August 1930), usually cited asG. L. C. Matthaei, was an Englishplant physiologist andeconomic botanist who advocatedorganic farming.
Matthaei was born inKensington in a family of German, Swiss and French ancestry. She was the daughter of the musician Louise Henriette Elizabeth Sueur and the commission merchant Carl Hermann Ernst Matthaei, she had a brother and three younger sisters, includingLouise Howard.[1] Matthaei attendedNorth London Collegiate School for Girls andNewnham College, Cambridge, and later worked as assistant toFrederick Blackman, producing significant work oncellular respiration. Between 1902 and 1905, Blackman and Matthaei set out to discover the role of temperature inphotosynthesis and performed the first such experiments, finding thatcarbon fixation is based on biochemical reactions which depend on temperature.[2] Although the experiment is inaccurately known as the Blackman Reaction, a significant part of the work was carried out by Matthaei and the 1904 paper communicated to theRoyal Society byFrancis Darwin bears only her name.[3]
In 1905, she marriedAlbert Howard, imperial economic botanist to the government of India. The couple invariably did their research together and soon became known as the "Sidney andBeatrice Webb of India". In 1913, Gabrielle Howard became the second imperial economic botanist to the government of India. Between 1905 and 1924, the Howards carried out research on crops such ascotton andwheat at their experiment station atPusa, and ran a fruit experiment station atQuetta from 1912 until 1919. They argued that plants should be studied in the context of their habitat and that food grown in humus-rich soil would be beneficial to health. Beginning in 1924, they oversaw the planning and construction of theInstitute of Plant Industry atIndore. She suddenly died inGenoa shortly before their planned retirement and return to England. The next year, her widower married her sister Louise. Neither marriage produced children.[4]
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