Speakers

Prof. Ibrokhim Abdurakhmonov was born on February 19, 1975 in Govasoy village of Chust region, Namangan district, Uzbekistan in the family of a biology teacher. In 1981, he attended one of the high schools in his village and graduated it after 11th grade education in 1992 with honorary “Gold medal”.

Ibrokhim Abdurakhmonov received his B.S. Degree (1997) in biotechnology from the National University of Uzbekistan (former Tashkent State University), M.S. degree in plant breeding (2001) from Texas A&M University of USA.

PhD degree (2002) in molecular genetics, Doctor of Science degree (2009) in genetics, and full professorship (2011) in molecular genetics and molecular biotechnology from the Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology, Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan.

He founded (2012) and is currently leading the Center of Genomics and Bioinformatics of Uzbekistan.

He serves as an associate editor board member of several international and national journals on plant sciences.

He received Government award – 2010 chest badge “Sign of Uzbekistan”, 2010 TWAS prize, and "ICAC Cotton Researcher of the Year 2013" for his outstanding contribution to cotton genomics and biotechnology.

He was elected The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Fellow (2014) on Agricultural Science, a co-chair/chair of “Comparative Cenomics and Bioinformatics” workgroup (2015) of International Cotton Genome Initiative (ICGI), and Member (2017) of Academy Of Sciences of Uzbekistan.

In 2016, he was awarded with a chest badge of “25 years of independence of Uzbekistan” given by Uzbekistan President for the contribution of countries science and technology development in the past 25 years of independence of Uzbekistan.

In 2017, he was promoted as vice-president of Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan and elected as its full member.

Later, he was appointed as Minister of newly established Ministry of Innovative development of Uzbekistan.  He was awarded for SCOPUS AWARD-2018 “Top Agricultural Scientist” jointly presented by Elsevier and former Ministry of Higher Education of Uzbekistan.

December 2022 - November 2023 – Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovations of the Republic of Uzbekistan (newly established ministry in the spheres of higher education, vocational education and training, science and innovations).

In March 2023, Prof. Abdurakhmonov, as one of the four scientists representing China, Egypt, Lithuania and Uzbekistan, received the prestigious UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences at a ceremony in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Their research has contributed to improving food security, cotton varieties, diagnostic tools and innovative treatments for debilitating genetic disorders.