Roles

Since was appointed as a member of staff at the University of Tripoli, Abobakir Elhaj teaches principles of horticulture and general botany for the agriculture faculty and horticulture department students. Upon getting his PhD, he suggested a new compulsory coursework ‘’ Molecular biology’’ for the department of horticulture. He was assigned for the development, quality and performance assessment committee and suggested three sub-departmental sections in 2012. He worked as coordinator of the departmental meetings and quality and performance evaluation committee for many years. He was named as head department in 2014. Dr. Elhaj worked as member of team for establishing the university center for biotechnology in 2014 and the director of the faculty biotechnology committee in 2017. In 2021, Dr. Elhaj was assigned as a director of the department high studies committee. Dr. Elhaj has many publications in different journals about the plant gene regulation under abiotic stresses.  Also, he supervises undergraduate and graduate students’ research.  Now, Dr. Elhaj teaches molecular biology and plant physiology modules for undergraduates, and research methods plant growth regulators in agriculture for graduate students.

Careers

Recently, Abobakir Elhaj works as a member of staff at the department of horticulture, faculty of agriculture - University of Tripoli. He firstly started his career as a researcher assistant in 1997. Then, he was turned on to a member of staff in 1999 as a lecturer assistant. He then, was promoted  to a lecturer in 2003. In 2004, he was appointed for PhD study abroad. In 2009, Dr. Elhaj was granted a PhD in plant biotechnology from Newcastle University, UK. On June 2015, was promoted to an assistant professor, then to assistant professor on May 2021.

Research Interests

Dr. Elhaj is very enthusiastic and active in running research. He established a plant growth chamber at the department for conducting experiments on gene mutants in plants. He published many research papers in different local in international journals. Dr. Elhaj’s research interests cover a wide range of plant research area including plant and fruit trees physiology, pomology, and plant molecular biology with more focus on studying plants genes involved in different abiotic stresses response; mainly drought and salinity. Dr. Elhaj conducted a research at Newcastle University, UK as a researcher visitor from 2010 to 2013 studying a set of genes in the module plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Later, Dr. Elhaj has conducted a research about using some digital teqniches  to evaluate the level of abiotic stress the plants suffer; thermocamera was used determine the level of salt and drought stresses plants were exposed. Also, Dr. Elhaj used some digital tools to measurer pigments levels (such as chlorophyll) and measuring the soil temperatures around plants roots. Recently, Dr. Elhaj has used a new natural produced material that is added to soil and growth media to support preserving more water as one of his seeks to find some practical means that help to reduce the effects of drought stress the cultivation and production of agricultural crops.

External Activities

Dr. Elhaj evaluated many scientific papers for publication and for scientific conferences. Also, He collaborated for teaching academic courses at different institution outside the University of Tripoli. Recently, he was assigned as a director of the date palm tissue culture committee at the ministry of agriculture and livestock and as a member of the committee for date palm prize. Later, Dr. Elhaj has suggested a detailed proposal for establishing the Libyan Green Great Belt (LGGB) which was officially introduced to the director of the National Committee for Desertification control at the Libyan ministry of Agriculture and livestock. This Green Great Belt is a forest trees belt to be extended from the western Libyan borders to the Eastern borders which helps in reducing the harsh effects of the climate changes in Libya and neighboring regions.