Dr. Lakhdar Khelifi - The 14th Arab Congress of Plant Protection

Professor Lakhdar Khelifi is a prominent Algerian scientist specializing in plant biotechnology. He is currently a full professor at the National Higher School of Agronomy (ENSA) in Algiers, where he headed the Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (LRGB) from 2001 to 2015.

Academic and Professional Background

Professor Khelifi earned his PhD in biotechnology in 1990 at the University of Henri Poincaré (UHP), France, and has accumulated extensive experience in the field. He was appointed Director of ENSA from 2015 to 2022, after serving as the Deputy Director of Postgraduate Studies and Research at the same institution for two years.

Scientific Contributions

His research primarily focuses on improving plant crops through biotechnological techniques. He has published numerous scientific articles, including studies on:

Optimizing alkaloid and some other biomolecules production from biotenologically induced plant hairy roots.

He has also made significant contributions to the study of various crops, including maize, olive trees, and date palms:

Maize: He has worked on the genetic diversity of the south algerian maizes, and on enhancing root growth and promoting root formation in maize exposed to salt and aluminum stress by isolating beneficial Pseudomonas sp strains from date-palm rhizospheres.

Olive Trees: His research includes optimizing tissue culture techniques for the propagation and improvement of olive trees, focusing on enhancing their resistance to environmental stresses.

Date Palms : He has developed protocols for the desiccation-enhanced maturation and germination of date palm somatic embryos derived from cell suspension culture. Additionally, he has worked on callogenesis induction in protoplasts isolated from embryogenic callus of various date palm cultivars.

Impact and Recognition

Professor Khelifi is widely recognized for his contributions to plant biotechnology, with over 1,187 citations of his work since 2019. His expertise and dedication to research have made him a respected figure in agronomy both in Algeria and internationally.

[Google Scholar Profile]

(https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qfDhcAEAAAAJ&hl=fr