Varvara Alexandrovna Brilliant-Lerman (5 April 1888 – 17 May 1954) was a Russian plant physiologist who discovered the "Brilliant phenomenon".
In 1915, she passed state examinations that licensed her to teach at the St. Petersburg Bestuzhev Advanced Courses and other private institutions.
In 1925, she discovered that photosynthesis could be stimulated by the slight dehydration of plants, this discovery was named the "Brilliant phenomenon" after her.
By this time, she was recognised as a specialist in photosynthesis in Soviet Russia and she became one of the leading scientists at the Botanical Institute and she headed the Department of Ecology and Physiology of Plants as well as teaching there from 1945 until her death in 1954.
[1] With her research, Brilliant-Lerman demonstrated that photosynthesis is a function of a living plant rather than a conventional physico-chemical process.