Short Biography

Jamil Harb (Professor of Plant Biology)

Winner of Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Young Arab Researchers 2010

Department of Biology and Biochemistry, Birzeit University - Palestine

E-mails: [email protected]; [email protected]

Tel: 00970 2 298 2162; Fax: 00970 2 2982084; Mobile: 00970 599 350 713

I got my PhD 1994 from Hohenheim University (Stuttgart- Germany) in the field of physiology of fruits and vegetables, and have long experience in food quality and chemistry. During my work at Birzeit University, I spent two sabbatical years: 2009 at Cornell University (Department of Horticulture), USA, and 2015 at Max Planck Institute for Plant Physiology (Potsdam, Germany).

My current research activities include cooperation with researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich (LMU), and Freiburg University, all in Germany. The research themes include issues related to quality of fresh fruits and vegetables, and the impact of postharvest handling on their nutritional quality. Furthermore, recently I finished two studies financed by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that addressed food loss analysis of avocado, tomato, and sweet peppers. The studies had the focus of finding the causes and solutions of food Losses in the selected food supply chains in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – Palestine. In addition, I finished in the recent years few research projects, including metabolic profiling of medicinal plants collected from Palestinian Territories, the impact of controlled atmosphere storage on the quality of apples, pears, and blueberries, metabolic profiling of locally cultivated table grape varieties, and optimization of plant nutrition programs for vegetables produced in greenhouses.

The above-mentioned activities are financed through various institutions, including The German Academic Exchange Agency (DAAD), Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (through Distinguished Scholar Award Program), Fulbright Scholar Fellowships Program, and Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute – MAS.