Prof. dr hab. Hazem M. Kalaji graduated from the Agricultural Academy in Aleppo, Syria in 1983. In 1993, at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW), he obtained with honors a Ph.D. in agricultural sciences in the field of agronomy, specializing in plant physiology. At the Faculty of Agriculture and Biology of the same university, in 2013 he obtained a postdoctoral degree in agronomy with recognition from the Faculty Council, and in 2019 he obtained the title of full professor.
Prof. Kalaji belongs to a group of recognized specialists in the field of plant physiology, in particular in the field of photosynthesis. The conducted research concerns: functioning, bioenergetics and efficiency of plant photosynthetic apparatus, the productivity of plant assimilation apparatus, plant response to abiotic and biotic stressors, chlorophyll fluorescence, and plant gas exchange. In recent years, he has been conducting research in the field of creating innovative solutions for agriculture and environmental protection based on combining “plant talk” with machine learning systems. The latest research concerns the development of anti-virus filters (including masks) from plants (patent in Japan).
Prof. Kalaji is an expert at the European Commission and a member of numerous international organizations and a speaker at numerous scientific conferences and symposia with excellent publishing achievements. Up to 2021, he published 154 WoS-indexed scientific papers (248 including indexed ones), including 6 monographs (2 in Polish, and 1 in Italian, Russian, English, and Arabic) and 23 chapters in monographs. Prof. Kalaji belonged to the top 1% of best scientists in the World during 2019-2021.