Mohamed Hijri

Dr. Hijri earned his BSc in Cell Biology in 1994 and his DEA (equivalent to an MSc) in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology in 1995, both from the University of Burgundy in Dijon, France. He completed his PhD in 1999 at the same institution, specializing in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology with a focus on Molecular Genetics. His doctoral research, supervised by Prof. Hubert Dulieu at INRA Dijon, explored the genetic polymorphism organization of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Scutellospora castanea. In 1999, Dr. Hijri joined Dr. Ian Sanders' lab at the University of Basel in Switzerland as a postdoctoral fellow, conducting research on the molecular genetics and evolution of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. He continued this work at the University of Lausanne when the Sanders Lab relocated there in 2000, completing his postdoctoral fellowship in 2005. In September 2005, Dr. Hijri joined the Institut de Recherche en Biologie Végétale (IRBV) and the Department of Biological Sciences at the Université de Montréal. He was promoted to associate professor in 2010 and full professor in 2016. In 2019, Dr. Hijri joined the University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (UM6P) as an affiliate professor, where he founded the African Genome Center, in 2021.